Mess or Sleep

It would be mean and cruel of me to praise the Good Nite Lite and say it saved us.  Cause let's be honest, it hasn't.  I can see how it would work for a child who understood the phrase: "If you get up you will be in big trouble."

This phrase doesn't seem to work with my child, (I'm not totally bought on the idea that he doesn't understand it) but no matter how many time outs I put him in before the sun comes up, he still wakes two hours earlier than he should and is very confused that he can't leave his room when he wants.

I hear it's normal to be a parent and want so badly to sleep another hour or two.  I've heard that in about ten years it will take a crowbar and heavy machinery to get my child out of his bed.  Will this reeeaaaaally happen?  It's a joke, right?

Let's just say, for argument's sake, that he won't sleep in when he gets older, and if so, it will make the mornings that much weirder.  Can you imagine your child making their own breakfast?  Wow, now that is something out of the twilight zone.

Imagine your sweet child turning to you from in front of the stove.  He is wearing that apron you bought just for him because he loves to keep those beautiful clothes you buy him spotless, he asks: Oh hey mom, would you like some spinach omelet, I made it just for you!  When your spouse enters, you look knowingly at each other.  You've raised the perfect butler...

Now let reality set in...

Can you imagine the mess in the kitchen, bathroom and living room floor (my child would happily plop himself two feet away from the glow of the TV and proceed to mow down on sugar laced cereal in his underwear... that's what I envision anyway...)?  Would you take the couple of hours of sleep over a clean house?  

Clean house or not, when it gets to the point you are fantasizing about waking up at 7am, you know you need a mantra to get you through the day.... Think of the mess, think of the mess, think of the mess...