Cramps

Ah, the joys of putting young kids to bed. I watched a bit of Super Nanny when it was on, and always had a laugh at the hapless parents that couldn't get their 3 year old monster into bed. Then it was Super Nanny to the rescue, and all was right in the world.

Well, Monkey has reached that age where he much prefers to be out of bed at night, doing fun stuff with the rest of the family (like couch diving), rather than being in the farter, where he belongs. Child psychologists will probably go nuts at what I have to say next, but I have found the most effective way to get him to conk out is to get into his bed with him and lie there until he drifts into the Land of Nod.

Which can sometimes take some time. It tends to work, but the downside is that I tend to conk out with him. J has to come in just before midnight several times a week to wake me up and get me out of his bed. If I have done some really tough rides on the way home (tough as in fast, rather than long), then it might take me 5 minutes to flake out from the time I go horizontal. I rarely have a problem with going to sleep - 7 years of infantry exercises solved that problem.

The only thing that bites me is that the Monkey bed is only 2/3 the length of an adult bed, so I have to fold myself up to fit into it. It doesn't matter if I only spend 15 minutes lying there, but there have been nights where I have snored with the Monkey for 3 hours before J has given me a nudge. That can generate a nasty set of leg cramps.

I can therefore confirm that being stuck in a cell that is shorter than you are is a good form of torture.