He Wants to Sleep-Out!

As I was trying to fix supper tonight, Doug was in the kitchen getting tangled under my feet asking question after endless/almost-indecipherable question.

Then, one totally confused me. My son asked, "Can I sleep out tomorrow?" After much unraveling, I finally figured out that he wanted to get up EARLY tomorrow morning (like what morning in his life, HASN'T this child wanted to get up EARLY?)!

Of course! If "sleeping IN" means you are going to sleep late, then, surely "sleeping out" must mean you are getting up early. Makes sense to Doug!

And NO! He most certainly cannot sleep out tomorrow because I want to sleep in!!!

Doug's idea of a reasonable hour to get up and start your day is 3 AM sharp. My idea of the perfect time to call it a day and head for bed is 2 AM-ish...or even 6 AM! Now, don't get the wrong idea and think Doug is an early bird. Not at all. He is an all-around bird! Given his druthers, this child would go to bed around midnight and rise at 3 AM and still run in hyper-drive through the entire day! He is a master at getting around obstacles. We won't let him get up and play at 3 AM, so he gets up "to go to the bathroom" and proceeds to happily goof around in there for an hour or more. I finally had to make a rule that he is not allowed to turn on the bathroom light at night. There is a little nightlight in there and though it is tiny, still it gives enough illumination that one can find the toilet, especially when your eyes are already accustomed to the dark. The new rule has helped discourage him from having to use the bathroom so much during the night.

He USED to turn on his bedroom light at night. Once, I found him at, you guessed it, 3 AM fully dressed for school and waiting for breakfast! It was then that I decided he would not be allowed to turn his bedroom light on after we put him to bed until we came in to awaken him the next morning. Well, that worked about one night. Then he conveniently forgot, so I nonchalantly removed his lightbulbs from their fixtures and he spent the next week without operable lights in his room day and night. It was pretty inconvenient for him in the evenings. Once he had served his time and I screwed his lightbulbs back in, he managed to remember the rule from then on. Until, he happened upon a loop-hole...what parent could blame their child for going to the bathroom? So, we had to institute the "no lights can be turned on in the bathroom at night" rule next!