My Kids Don’t Sleep

Lessons learned in the middle of the night

“Mama, can we snuggle?”

I’m sound asleep. Hadn’t I just turned out my own beside light?! I’d been up late editing a manuscript for Zibby Books and trying, again, to pick the perfect title for my own Little A memoir before my editor’s deadline.

I look at my watch, straining to see in the dim hallway light.

“It’s one-thirty in the morning,” I say. “Come on. Let’s go back to bed, love.”

I heave my legs over the side and onto the carpet. As I do, I realize that in addition to my daughter standing beside me, my little guy is sleeping soundly in my bed. He has snuck in silently. He knows if he wakes me I bring him back to his room. He’s no dummy.

I reach over and lift my slumbering son. His arms stiffen. He doesn’t like this at all.

“But mama,” my daughter says. “I want to snuggle in your bed! It’s cozy!”

“It’s not snuggle time,” I say.

I put them both in their beds, tucking them under their covers in their side-by-side bedrooms. Then I start the shuffle. I walk in one room, stroke their back, then leave and head to the other. Then back again. Someone is always scared. Someone is always asking me to stay. To climb in. To hold their hand. But…