Lynn's Comments: Bedtime--I mean the exact time our heads hit the pillow--was a contentious issue for my brother and me. Being two years older, I felt I should get at least an hour more of "up time". Mom thought otherwise. Because we had to share a room, it wasn't possible to put one over on him, either. Both Alan and I knew exactly what the other got or did or had and the competition for MORE was fierce. We fought constantly. If it wasn't over who got what, it was about who said what and when and the grating repetition of "It's not FAIR!" made my folks' heads spin.
I remember being caught watching television from our vantage point in the hallway and my punishment was that I was sent to bed even earlier the next night. NO FAIR! I could never understand why an hour more was such a big deal. Why couldn't I watch one more show or do one more thing? Why did my parents insist that an eight o'clock bedtime was so important? WHY??!!
Years later, I had children of my own. By eight o'clock, when I was at the end of my proverbial rope, I made eight o'clock the set bedtime--no arguments, please. It's interesting, isn't it, that we repeat familiar routines and much like the fish in the ocean we return to familiar waters, and we do it to assure the survival of the species.
