Sleepless nights

It’s been a while since I’ve had a baby in my house, but I remember the seemingly endless nights of near terminal sleep deprivation.

The crying and wailing, kicking and screaming, and the babies were really loud too.

I remember getting, maybe, two hours of undisturbed sleep. Of not being able to truly relax, listening for any and all tell-tale sounds of distress.

Then they went to school…

The nights weren’t as bad, but the mornings became a constant battle. Week days were a struggle to get up, get ready and get out the door on time for school. Weekends, when a reasonable person could expect to sleep late, were for cartoons and video games, and organized sports. (What genius schedules soccer games at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning?!)

Precious hours that could be used to catch up on those much needed REM moments, were turned into constant shuttling from home to ball fields, to friends’ houses to school functions, to… you name it, you’re driving to it.

Then they got their own driver’s licenses…

At first I got a little giddy thinking of all that time I’d get back. No more taxi mom, no more being the team van driver. The new teen drivers could get themselves around town, to and fro, without much more than $50 a few dollars for gas.

I knew where they were supposed to be and with whom. Under the ever watchful eye of other parents, even friends, I knew when they deviate from that approved itinerary. I had the added benefit of curfews, both municipally and parentally imposed.

Then they got jobs and made friends I don’t know, go out with those friends after work and drive home at all hours of the night…

That’s when I learned the real meaning of sleepless nights, and watched my sanity totally decay

Trifecta, a weekly one-word prompt, challenges writers to use that word in its third definition form, using no less than 33 words or no more than 333. The week’s prompt is: Decay [intransitive verb \di-ˈkā\] 3: to fall into ruin

Submitted as part of Shell’s “Pour Your Heart Out” writing prompt at Things I Can’t Say. Please stop by to read the other posts, and give a little comment love.