Having a kid that is manic and anxious is not so great all of the time. Especially when they are REALLY manic and REALLY anxious. Want an example?
Holidays. Especially holidays featuring supernatural beings that place shit about your home. Last Christmas? I don't think I went to bed until 2 am. Not because of the fun I was having decking the halls, but because The Kid was so excited about Santa coming that he could not sleep, not a wink, until a heavy dose of benadryl finally knocked him out, which I gave him about 1:30. I believe I remember getting him down to sleep at one point, coming up, and next thing I knew he was back in the living room, thisclose to having the whole Santa facade crash down on his anxious head.
Another example? Easter. I rubbed his back for the entire Messiah from 10:30 to oh, what, 11:45 that night. And then the placing of eggs about the house, the jingling coins and the jelly beans against the hard casings of the eggs just about gave me an anxiety attack, for fear that he'd wake up and find me hiding them.
Tonight, we've got the tooth fairy on schedule for a pick up. He lost his tooth tonight, the third baby tooth to go, and there was much rejoicing. Luckily, I've been saving change for this purpose for the past few weeks. However, it's now 12:15 on a Thursday, he's just gone back to bed for the umpteenth time. The kitten is looking at me like, 'Dude, you know I'm scheduled to start attacking your feet in like four and a half hours, right? You better get some sleep.'
At what point to I give up, go to bed, and tell him the tooth fairy had to pass our house over because he didn't fall asleep at the right time? I don't dare, because the foul mood of bad sleep, plus the disappointment would result in a rage. A rage that would spread to when I drop him at my mom's house tomorrow morning, and I hate when she gets his bad moods.
It's not just that, though. I want him to get some some coins from the tooth fairy. It's what you do for your kid. It's fun, right? It's supposed to be fun, right? It's fun for parents of typical kids, right? It's just stuff like this, the stuff we're supposed to enjoy as parents, that I feel like I'm missing out on sometimes.
Whatever, it will still be cute tomorrow morning when he sees his fairy present... If I can wake up.
6 comments:
Oh man. What a complex thing the Tooth Fairy can become. How late did you have to stay up? Did he get another President?
Ooooh, Molly. I can sooo relate. It's not just manic depression - it must be whatever it is that runs in our genius family. Remember when C was setting leprechaun traps about 6 years ago? He would set the traps before he went to bed and we'd find him, at all hours of the night, checking the traps. It was all he could think about - and it was all he could talk about. His teachers even called me about it.
K hates the tooth fairy - she quite rightfully thinks it's freakish to have some unknown being sneak into your bedroom in the middle of the night, so at my house, the fairy tooth/coin exchange occurs during the day.
It is supposed to be fun. But fun is relative, right? I mean, some people think it is FUN to surf during a hurricane ...
Does he wake you up five times nightly for water, because he has a bad dream, because he peed the bed, or just to see if you're there? If so, join the club.
You can only do your best and keep working on these issues. We all have our good and bad days. Little or no sleep over time does us all in. Hang in there.
I remember once losing a tooth and then it got vacuumed up accidentally. I had SO MUCH anxiety that the Tooth Fairy wouldn't come because alas, how would she know that I'd actually lost a tooth? Plus, we were in New Jersey at the time. How would the Tooth Fairy know I wasn't in my home state? It was all good, though. The Tooth Fairy worked it out, I'm glad to say.
OMG I can so relate. Except Zachary doesn't have too much of the not going to sleep...just the not STAYING asleep. Holidays are hell just for the overstimulation factor. And people don't understand why we won't do more than one family member's house in a day. Ugh.
I can't wait to read more of your stuff!!!
Post a Comment