Chilling Out

Well, the prodigal daughter is back from Vietnam and is she ever the slumberchick (reminds me of why I called her Princess Sleepyhead in the first place). She's been toddling off to bed around 11ish, and getting up at 3.30 pm. Now, of the remaining 7 1/2 hours of the day, approx two of these will be spend in ablutions. I love chilling out as much as the next person, but I need some kind of life as well, some kind of activity. I think as a teenager, I liked to sleep in too -- till around 1, but then I was up till after midnight, establishing bad sleeping patterns early.

I was the kid who started the big assignment at 11 pm the night before it was due, and pulled not quite an all-nighter, but close. I always got it done on time though. She's the kid who misses deadlines. I get stressed about this. She doesn't. (I used to get stressed about having left the assignment till the last minute as well, but obviously not enough to reform my ways.) I point out that her grades would be higher if she didn't lose marks for lateness; she's circumspect. At least she's trying in class. I have that.

Soon, the school hols will be over, and we'll be struggling to re-establish some sort of normalcy in her routine, but in the meantime I'm just going with the flow. Her sleeping time gives me writing time. It's less time she's fighting with her brother -- though this often means more time when he's claiming my attention. I suppose you can't win them all, but then when they're both fighting, and I end up feeling like I can't win any of them. My husband says I should be fighting to get her out of bed earlier, but then I'm stressed (because she's not very cooperative), and she's grouchy. Actually, "grouchy" is putting it politely. So, I'm content to just chill out, even if it's frustrating at times and means we don't get to do some of the things I've planned to do. Still, that means it's cheaper too! Sometimes you can win them all.