The Exhausted Dad: Battling sleep like a 13-year-old
My oldest daughter, age 13, rejects the core principles of sleep.
Despite being a scientifically-minded kid, she will never admit that her body “requires” sleep. At least not during nighttime hours.
My daughter’s sleep habits, like many things about her, haven’t really changed over the years. Although officially taller than Grandma now, my daughter is still essentially the same little girl who didn’t sleep in her crib for more than five minutes at a time during the first two years of her life. I rocked that baby to sleep at all sorts of odd hours, then let her sleep in my arms because she’d wake up if I tried laying her down anywhere else. I watched so much Netflix back in those days.
Perhaps I’m living in revisionist history, but the sleep deprivation of my early parenting days wasn’t all that different than my previous sleeping habits. Really, my sleepless daughter inherited my own wonky rest schedule. I NEVER wanted to sleep as a kid, and once I became a teenager, I also, basically, never slept during nighttime hours.
Both of us LOVE sleeping during the day … especially in the morning hours when we’re apparently supposed to be awake. Our rebellious nature makes it so sleeping during the day feels like a heroic act. A selfish, disruptive-to-the-rest-of-the family act … but also heroic.
The kids’ Christmas break this year aligned with my school break, which meant none of us had to go anywhere. No early morning appointments or really any good reason to be anywhere. To celebrate, my oldest daughter and I reverted to our much-preferred owl schedule. We both stayed up WAY too late and slept until we wanted … except on Christmas Day. Who put it into kids’ heads that presents must be opened at the crack of dawn? I say Santa shouldn’t deliver anything until after McDonald’s stops serving breakfast.
To be clear, my daughter and I didn’t stay up until 2 or 3 a.m. every night together. She went to her room and read books, wrote stories, listened to music, etc. I stayed up in the living room watching movies, playing video games and, yes, reading books. Really! I swear I read a few non-school books over Christmas break.
Because while we are both rebellious anti-sleepers, we also enjoy the solitude that comes with being awake at night. We don’t want to talk to other people! Other people should be sleeping! I rule the night world alone!
Sadly, all holiday breaks must come to an end. While the kids’ break ended before mine, I’m on the hook for driving them to their early morning activities.
My oldest and I warned each other about the drastic shift in schedule: “You should go to bed earlier so you’re not dragging tomorrow.”
Unfortunately, at 2:30 a.m. the Sunday before back-to-school, my daughter came upstairs to refill her water. She had been listening to music, and I was playing "Fortnite."
“Oh no,” we each said. “Tomorrow is going to suck.”
Still worth it.
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Tyler Wilson is a freelance writer, full-time student and parent to four kids, ages 7-13. He can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.
