It has been a good solid two weeks since I have had an
uninterrupted night’s sleep. Summer vacation to my almost 17 year old and his brother means staying up all night and sleeping all day. It means playing music at 1 am, gaming with one another at 3am, a WEEDS marathon lasting 17 hours, laundry at 4 am and snacking while downing copious amounts of coffee in order to force their bodies to stay awake and alert.
Action had to be taken, I am a beast without my sleep and someone could get hurt. There was no pleading or begging for quiet and sleep on my part but instead a
communication with all the humans in my home under the age of 19 years old took place. It was brief and stated that my sleep was important to me and to that end I would be taking the modem off of the computer at 11 O’clock sharp for the rest of the summer, because this was initially the problem - staying up on the
computer, turning on the music and tap, tap, tapping away all night and
morning long. This of course was met with friction and complaints of my not being fair, but I reminded everyone that my lack of sleep was also not fair and after all this is not a democracy. To my delight it worked well, for
four days.
At 4 AM last night I heard a crash and a bang, the front door slam shut, someone shuffling heavily on the creaky old wooden floorboards and of course at that hour being awoken in that manner I had no good scenario running through my brain. My adrenaline was pumping through my blood and I was up and at my bedroom door in three long strides, my heals screaming their protest. My oldest offspring was entering his bedroom
across the hall from mine and when asked what he was doing he said that he was doing his laundry and thought since nobody else was awake that then was a good time to get it done.
Exit common sense. When exactly that happened I have no idea, I think it must be in
hibernation, asleep for the summer, perhaps. God forbid.
That explained the bump, the crash the slam of the front door and my being up for the 13
th night in a row, awakened yet again. Suddenly I understood why some mothers on the nature channel eat their young and I was much less horrified at that thought than I once had been.