The Bedtime Ploy

My granddaughter often answers questions with a very serious, "Okay, I'll tell you, but first I have to tell you this." She's four and bursting with information that's like money in her pockets with no place to spend it. As you can see, she's delighted with her new baby brother, even though she wanted a sister from the very start.

In a recent conversation, what she had to tell me first was all the excuses she could come up with to keep from going to bed. She needed water, then she needed a song, then she needed to go to the bathroom, then her blanket fell underneath the bed. At four, she has already mastered the tricks of the trade!

Here's a poem in honor of the bedtime ploy.

How to Stay up Late

At night when grown-ups start to yawn
Beneath their reading lamps
Is when I whip my album out
To stick in foreign stamps.

And when pajama time draws near
I start to write the story
Of Lincoln’s life, or set up school
Like Maria Montessori.

So kid, wise up. Unless you like
To go to bed too fast
Just save your most impressive play
Of all day long for last.

-- X. J. Kennedy