Tonight I had Eerika on my right side and Saku on my left side as they fell asleep. It is a Wednesday night and I had just stretched out our evening probably about 15 minute too long, so as I announced at 7:50 that Wizard of Oz was the only thing we were reading, Saku broke down. Ironically, that is why I chose not to read other books because he NEEDED to go to sleep ASAP.
So the fact that there was no more reading led to crying. I asked him to join our family prayer, but he was crying so he missed it. Because he didn't join in our family prayer, there was going to be no story. It is our family rule. If you aren't reverent for family prayer and scriptures, there is no story.
Eerika still got a story, which lead to Saku crying more because he wanted a story and also because he couldn't find Cookie Dough, his stuffed animal dog. I asked him to stop crying or I would have to take him upstairs. The kids are sleeping in my room on their mattresses while Troy is gone.
Once Eerika's story and prayer were done, Saku was still crying so of course I had to take him upstairs. He was obviously so upset. He was exhausted. He missed his story, which he loves and now he would have to be upstairs by himself.
I do follow up on my threats, but I also have a tendency to show a lot of mercy because I am softie. We were able to talk it through and he could understand why he didn't get a story and why he was upstairs. So we headed back downstairs on the condition that there would be no more crying. He still had few sniffle filled words about Cookie Dough and Eerika somehow had misplaced her kitty so she started breaking down, so I figured that we would all climb into my bed and they would fall asleep there.
I snuggled both kids as I sang to them and soon there was a soft snoring on my both sides.
It is hard to enforce rules. My least favorite part of parenting. I am grateful that the situation was defused and the kids went to bed hearing my singing and knowing that they are much loved.
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