I honestly thought that by the time my kids were in school, bedtimes would become easier.

Boy was I wrong.

It’s a real challenge for my teenagers to simply go to bed.

I gain more information from my teens in the five minutes before their school night bedtimes than any other time of the day.

BOYS WHO WANT TO TALK?  AWESOME!

But not at midnight, dude.

And I don’t need the wobbly chair leg fixed at 11 pm, either, thankyouverymuch.

Just go to bed for Pete’s sake.

Last night Dan (16 years old) was doing everything he could to procrastinate. He started telling jokes because if there’s one way to make mom forget what she was doing, make her laugh. Show her a video of a baby laughing on Youtube and she forgets all of her responsibilities and then you’re the WINNER.

“What is it, Dan? Seriously. Do you need me to count to three like when you were a toddler?”

He just laughed.

ONE!

TWO!

I’m panicking on the inside at this point because if I said THREE and he didn’t make a mad dash towards his room… well, that’s called PARENTING FAIL and it was way too late in the evening for me to be all clever and stuff. I guess I was banking on the idea that his body would innately remember the timeout corner and his feet would take off before his brain engaged.

TWO AND A HALF!

Can I just win once?

THHHR….

I didn’t get the full word out before Dan said, “No hablo Ingles! No hablo Ingles!”

It made me burst out laughing and I forgot all my responsibilities.

Dan- uno/mamá- cero