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| Saturday night, while it was all still fun and games. |
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| Ben, in the throes of the world's worst slumber party hangover. |
Over the weekend, we embarked on another first: hosting a slumber party. As is characteristic (as a result of me more than
Mark), we probably overdid it a bit. Ben invited six boys for a trip to Badger
Sports Park and then dinner and a sleepover. We figured it would be nice to do
something special for our eldest son's 10th birthday. And just because we invited
six kids didn't mean they'd all be able to come, right? But they were, and did I
mention that Sunday afternoon we'd also hold our first open house?
Our trip to Badger went smoothly despite the extra-lousy
weather, which brought extra-large crowds to the indoor attraction. The boys
played a round of laser tag and quickly blew through the gaming cards we'd
purchased for each child. Mark and I entertained Paul and Gus while the big
boys played. (Aside: there are few tasks more loathsome than guiding a child
through the process of choosing crappy prizes at the arcade ticket counter, am I
right?)
We came home and fed the boys, and wow can they eat! I
figured that some fifth-grade boys have morphed into big eaters, while others,
like Ben, haven't yet reached that point. Deciding on the quantity of food was stressful for me, but we seemed to do OK.
A little before 9:00, the boys asked if they could go
outside to play night games, a request we welcomed after all the time they'd
spent playing with various electronic devices. We gave them a gentle reminder
to keep down the volume and sent them on their way. They played ghosts in the
graveyard and kick the can while Mark and I watched TV in the living room. By
9:20 they were back in the house.
About 10 minutes after the boys had finished, we saw a
police car pull up near our house. Mark and I watched with curiosity, as the
officers seemed focused on our house. Sure enough, moments later, they emerged
and were walking around our backyard with flashlights. Mark went outside to
investigate. Turns out a neighbor had seen the boys running around and was
concerned.
Officer Nick asked us to summon the boys upstairs for a couple
questions. "Men," he said after we'd gathered the puzzled and
probably a little freaked-out boys, "Were you just playing some night
games?" "Ah, yes," they replied. "OK, well, carry on
then." Lame. I guess our neighbors were nice to try to watch out for us,
but calling the cops probably was overkill. They could've just stopped over and
talked to us. As it was, we got the privilege of having to explain to each
boy's parents why their sons might be retelling the story of the cops showing
up at our house.
After that little bit of drama, I was ready for bed. Mark
decided he'd stay up a little later to keep an eye on the boys and try to steer
them toward winding down by midnight or so. When I sleepily opened my eyes the next
morning, Mark informed me that three of the boys, including Ben, hadn't slept
all night. I honestly had not expected this. We've had kids sleep over before, albeit just one at a time,
and they may go to bed late, but they do sleep. I thought maybe at worst they'd
stay up until 1 or 2 a.m. but still get in at least five or six hours of sleep.
Sunday morning, Ben was nodding off before the last boy
even left the house. Mark and I knew we'd be in for a lot of crabbiness,
especially since we didn't want Ben to snooze all day, as we figured that would
only further mess up his sleep schedule. We decided we'd let Ben nap while we
cleaned for the open house and then try to make him stay up until at least
after supper.
Awakening Ben after his little nap proved no easy task.
When we tried to rouse him to get changed and ready to go to my parents' before
the open house, he was surly and disoriented. A sampling of the dialog between
Mark and Ben. Ben, crying in frustration: "What is this? I don't even know
what this is!" Mark: "It's underwear." Ben, more crying: "I
don't know what to do with it!"
I can only describe what ensued over the next few hours
as a slumber party hangover, a direct result of an underconsumption of sleep
with a simultaneous overconsumption of sugar, soda and Cheetos. There were lots of frustrated tears: "Why can't I just go to sleep?" Ben tried to
lie down and sleep at every opportunity. It was a full-time job trying to keep
him awake, though we did give in and let him sleep for small chunks.
In the end, we all survived the day. We held the open
house, Ben went to bed early and slept a good 12 hours. Ben's always been a bit of a night owl. I hope maybe this experience has taught him something about the value of sleep. Yeah, I don't think so either. I can tell you one
thing, though, it's going to be a long time before we decide to host another
slumber party. Oh, and one more thing, we host one hell of a slumber party.
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