Sleep and Sweden

I met a woman who is visiting her family in NY for a few months because in her native Sweden, during these few months, it gets light at 9am and dark again by 3.  She said that when she's there, she sleeps a lot.  Who wouldn't, when so much of the day was dark?

Who wouldn't?  My kids, that's who!

Now, my oldest is a "don't want to sleep" kid from way back. When she was a baby, she needed rocking to sleep, and if you put her down before her little legs were completely asleep, you'd be rocking her all over again.  But my second welcomed being put down in her crib for the night--as if she'd had enough of us for one day.  And my third spent most of his first few months sleeping in a carrier on my chest (I remember, because my friend, who had had a baby at the same time, could never get her baby to doze off for more than fifteen minutes at a time, for what seemed like ever).

So, why is it that nobody in my house wants to sleep now?

Sometimes, it's homework, I get that.  But most of the time, it's independent of that, AND independent of any knowledge they have of needing to wake up early the next morning.  Can these really be MY children, when I totally relate to the Swedish woman?  Darkness is a step toward sleep.  (Perhaps I could just shut off lights inside to reinforce that).  There are nights when I can barely stay awake long enough to finish the blog that I should have competed earlier in the day, yet, there are my children, awake, perhaps fearing that they'll miss something.  What could they possibly miss besides the "Momster" me I become late at night?  Or the nagging me who interrupts their sleep when I wake them up the next morning?

For tonight, I ask only to finish writing. If I don't have to wake them to go somewhere tomorrow, they can awake away. As long as they don't disturb my snooze while they're doing it.