All Nighters

Aaahh... Yes. Those wonderful all-nighters. They're not something I remember very clearly as having done, even though I know I pulled a few back in the day.
Now it's my kids' turn to have them. Granted they're all still young enough so these fantastic no-sleepers happen right here in my house, under my watchful, but sleepy, supervision. I was jolted awake twice last night (that I can remember) by the excited grunting of teenage boys winning or losing at XBox.
It's 10:00 a.m., Sunday morning. One daughter on the couch - still sleeping.

Son in his own bed, and only because apparently he was the first asleep and had an unfortunate incident with some cold water....

Another daughter asleep in the wrong bunk.
Teenage boy sprawled out at an angle, asleep on downstairs sofa.

I don't know how they manage.

I used to know. See, back in the day, I used to be able to do this. Sleepovers, parties, stay up all night, work eight hours the next day, make it to college classes.

Now? It's a rarity that I'm able to stay up past 11:00 p.m. My typical bedtime routine is to be in the shower by at least 9:00 p.m. and then in my pajamas and in bed by 10:00; 10:30 at the latest. My kids all think I'm rather boring. But I know that I can get up and face the day without too many yawns.

And then of course, there's the fact that their young bodies can take sleeping just about anywhere, in any position. While I know that if I were to sleep on the sofa for a night (even the occasional nap during the day) I'm going to be very sorry when I wake up. Very sorry. It will take at least a week to work the kinks out of my neck and shoulders. And believe it or not, I think it actually does something to my digestive system as well.

It just gets harder to manage these things as you get older, you know? And then of course, you're more stressed because you worry about your kids doing the same stupid things you did when you were their age, which doesn't help. Who needs more stress? And to top it off, you really don't want to seem like a boring old bugger, which, of course, you do to everyone around you. You know, 'early to bed, early to rise' and all that smack.... I actually heard that phrase/saying/quote on one of the old black and white versions of The Little Rascals.... and sadly.... I say it to myself, inside my head, all the time.

...Except, I'm not exactly any more healthy, wealthy and wise than I was before.