I love summer. I love it so much that I will state it again: I love summer! Seeing that my wife and I both teach elementary school, summer for us is like being a couple of Labradors at an off-leash dog park for two and a half-months. We are free for ten weeks. It's a lovely time of year.
On top of that, our puppies get to be leash-free as well (except for the 16-year old who has online puppy classes this summer). That means we get to spend extra time with our daughters, spontaneous frozen yogurt outings, family vacations, trips to the beach, BBQs and staying up late.
It's that last bit of freedom that scares me a bit...staying up late. We all do it. Our 9:30 or 10:00 bedtimes have slowly crept to 10:30, then 11:00 and for some of us, midnight is the norm. For the teen, sometimes later. I'm not so concerned that we aren't getting enough sleep. My wife and youngest daughter sleep in every morning. I take naps (because, for the life of me, I can't sleep in any longer), and we generally say "good morning" to our teen right after the rest of us have finished eating lunch.
My concern is getting us all back on track in the next four weeks. It happens every August. We try to get our sleep schedules back to normal, and end up laying in bed the night before school starts, wide-eyed praying for slumber. And, of course, the more you think about not sleeping, the more you don't sleep.
So, this summer I have vowed to start correcting our sleep ways earlier. Each week we'll go to bed thirty minutes earlier than the week before, and by the time we are called to return to our leashes, we'll be ready. Of course, we'll have to tweak this for our vampire of a teen, but I think we can pull it off.
Check back with us in a few weeks and see how we're doing. 'Til then, off to the dog park!
image courtesy of ©MorgueFile.com/Nesstor4u2
On top of that, our puppies get to be leash-free as well (except for the 16-year old who has online puppy classes this summer). That means we get to spend extra time with our daughters, spontaneous frozen yogurt outings, family vacations, trips to the beach, BBQs and staying up late.
It's that last bit of freedom that scares me a bit...staying up late. We all do it. Our 9:30 or 10:00 bedtimes have slowly crept to 10:30, then 11:00 and for some of us, midnight is the norm. For the teen, sometimes later. I'm not so concerned that we aren't getting enough sleep. My wife and youngest daughter sleep in every morning. I take naps (because, for the life of me, I can't sleep in any longer), and we generally say "good morning" to our teen right after the rest of us have finished eating lunch.
My concern is getting us all back on track in the next four weeks. It happens every August. We try to get our sleep schedules back to normal, and end up laying in bed the night before school starts, wide-eyed praying for slumber. And, of course, the more you think about not sleeping, the more you don't sleep.
So, this summer I have vowed to start correcting our sleep ways earlier. Each week we'll go to bed thirty minutes earlier than the week before, and by the time we are called to return to our leashes, we'll be ready. Of course, we'll have to tweak this for our vampire of a teen, but I think we can pull it off.
Check back with us in a few weeks and see how we're doing. 'Til then, off to the dog park!
image courtesy of ©MorgueFile.com/Nesstor4u2
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