Chrissy,
number six of seven siblings,
is the only female child in the Little Studies family.

When she was three years old, Chrissy refused to sleep in her designated bedroom. She had been temporarily assigned the bottom bunk in the bedroom with two bunk beds. The other three slots were filled by her 13-, 11-, and 9-year-old brothers. Mom suspected that it was the girl-boy thing for Chrissy … already.

Chrissy had been promised a return to her private bedroom-turned-nursery when her newly arrived baby brother would take up residence with his 7- and 5-year-old brothers in their bedroom. Mom did try moving Chrissy into the younger boys’ room, but she continued to be at her worst each evening.

Chrissy’s brothers seemed comfortable with the story time (or homework), baths and personal hygiene tasks, finding tomorrow’s clothes, dressing for bed, having a snack, settling into bed, lights out.

Still, Mom’s concern about the girl-boy thing returned. (See Nov. 7, “Girls are different” post.)

Dad, who never believed in escalating a small problem into a family catastrophe, counseled Mom to ignore Chrissy’s bedtime demeanor. Thinking it was an attention-getting device, Dad allowed Chrissy a later bed time than her roommates. He and Mom used the extra time to re-read her favorite stories.

It did not work.

Nothing worked.

When the story time ended, the fussing began in earnest … every night. Dad resorted to walking around the living room holding Chrissy in his arms until she fell asleep.

One evening, Dad moved his sleeping daughter to the bedroom just a little too early. His daughter was not quite asleep. The fussing began again. Dad, completely exasperated, asked, “Tell me, why don’t you want to go to bed?”

“The brothers smell like feet!” she retorted.

When he returned to the living room, Dad told Mom, “Relax. It’s not the girl-boy thing. It’s the sneaker thing.” The laundry hamper and the boys’ sneakers found a new home in the bathroom, and Chrissy joined the rest of the family in enjoying the bedtime routine.

Posted by CDW at 2:27 PM 0 comments Links to this post