It's never too early for bedtime

Declan and I were scrambling to beat the morning bell earlier this week, well I was scrambling he was mumbling grumpily as he put on his shoes, the equivalent of first grader profanity.

His primary topic of frustration was that I would not allow him to watch morning cartoons. I adopted a "no morning cartoons until after you're ready" rule a few weeks ago and Declan is not at all a fan of it.

I explained to him that if he had eaten his cereal and brushed his teeth faster, instead of meandering casually around the house, he would have had time for a cartoon.

Declan quickly shot back at me, in his grumpiest tone, that it was my fault for not waking him up early enough.

"I tried, you wouldn't get up Declan!" I replied.

"Thats because you wake me up too early!" Declan yelled back at me in frustration.

I had to chuckle, he was so serious and clueless about his conflicting statements.

"Get your jacket on buddy, you are going to bed so early tonight," I replied, my response not improving his mood at all.

"I don't need a jacket, I'm just wearing my hoody," he chimed back at me.

"Declan it is cold out, you need your jacket," I replied.

He again refuted the need for a jacket and insisted it was not cold enough, eventually causing me to cave in to the pressures of the clock. I corralled him, jacket-less, out the door and into the car.

Halfway through our short drive to the school his persistent complaining from the back of the car suddenly registered. I had been successfully ignoring the "static" but something he said struck a nerve and this time I didn't chuckle.

I had, apparently, had my morning fill and my eyes lit up with my own grumpiness. Declan had once again successfully passed his mood on to me.

"Are you kidding me?" I growled at him while glaring at him through the rear-view-mirror, "you're now complaining that you're cold!"

Declan began to make a half-hearted effort to blame me for not going back to get his jacket, but I think the irritation burning in my eyes and tone of my voice eroded his confidence. He quickly conceded he had underestimated how cold it was, in his own sort of way.

He hasn't since argued against wearing his jacket in the morning, but it is only a matter of time before we bump heads again over something. In conversations with other parents I determined his 7:30 p.m. bedtime is already earlier than most, but I am considering tinkering with it a bit more.

I can't help but think of how grand it would be to have him cheerfully waking me up on school days, such as he somehow is able to do every Saturday and Sunday morning.