“Hallelujah!” Weekends

Recently, a couple wrote their children a half-warning, half-informative note detailing the dangers of waking their parents up before 10 a.m. on the weekend. The only exception to this rule was if there was an actual emergency, not just whining or squabbling between siblings. I have to admit that my husband and I never considered doing what these crafty, possibly desperate parents did when our boys were younger, that’s probably because my boys couldn’t read back when this was a problem.

Thankfully, my youngest child has always been a night owl. He sleeps in but that’s because he rarely goes to sleep before 11 p.m. However, when my twins were his age they and the oldest were terrible about sleeping in on the weekends.

It was all I could do to get them up by 7 a.m. so I could get them to daycare and then me to work on time during the week. However, come Saturday and Sunday we were lucky to get them to sleep in until 6 a.m. I could never understand why that was.

I still remember the glorious day, the day all parents of young children dream about, when our oldest boy got up and made toast for his younger twin brothers. Yes, we were awake and we could hear them, but they didn’t even try to wake us up. To our surprise and delight they didn’t burn down the house or electrocute themselves with the toaster, they just turned on cartoons and ate their breakfasts.

From that weekend on, we weren’t afraid to sleep in and let the boys fend for themselves on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I would have to say that morning in bed we literally heard a large choir of angels screeching “Hallelujah!” at the top of their lungs.

For a long time we never thought that day would come, but it did. The strange thing is that when that day comes, you envision the rest of your weekends being like that forever. Being able to sleep in and wallow in your covers until noon on Saturday and Sunday. However, the sad truth is that just a few short years later you will be getting up early on the weekends thanks to practices, games, lessons, matches, and pretty much anything your kids are into.

So, to those parents who are in the “Hallelujah!” weekend years of your life, I say to you enjoy them while you can. They don’t last for very long.

Joy Larson is a mother of four boys, graduate of the University of Montana, animal lover and writer.