Early to Bed...

Parenting is full of trade-offs. Yes, dear daughter, you may have ice cream, but only if you finish your half Brussel Sprout. You may watch Princess (again, groan), if you go potty first. You may have lunch or nap but "Daddy go away" is not an option. These trades are all easy because these trades are all choices presented to the children. There is at least one trade that is a matter for the parents: the trade between eating dinner with the kids or without.

Bedtime routines are comforting to young children. Having an ordered progression of steps that leads to sleep gives toddlers a sense of order to their lives, or something. One adds or subtracts steps in this progression at one's peril, as the toddler's entire psychology depends on repetition of these steps, every night. For instance, my daughter has been known to burst into tears because she forgot to brush her tongue earlier in the evening. At this point in her life, my daughter's bedtime routine is about the length of a NASA pre-flight checklist.

So the Doctor and I base our decision to put the kids to bed before we eat on whether we think we might be hungry enough to eat the kids before they fall asleep. Once the kids are asleep, dinner may be enjoyed in a relaxing, adult environment. After prep and cooking time, this is usually 10 pm, 11 pm at the latest.

The alternative to late, adult dinner is to eat with the kids, which presents its own problems. Will our kids like what we are eating? Will they let us cook? Does one child want to eat while sitting on someone's lap tonight? Despite the mathematical impossibility, will the family be wearing more food than was prepared?

But the real benefit is that with dinner over and the kids in bed, the night is still young. The Doctor and I have the entire evening to ourselves.

Which is why I'm going to bed at 8:45 tonight. Yay, sleep!