Bedtime for Children and Divorce, Is There a Correlation?
Zelda’s birthday is coming up, which leads to a serious social obligation here in Argentina! In grade school, you pretty much are required to invite all of your classmates to an elaborate party with hired entertainment…something we had hoped to avoid. (Birthdays are big business here.)
Luckily, with the help of Florencia, we are going to be able to cheat! Zoe’s classmate, Sofia, has a birthday on the same day as Zelda, so we are going to throw a co-birthday party, which saves me from having to figure out all of the ins and outs of these complicated celebrations on my own.
We met with Flor yesterday, filled out invitations, and split up all remaining work. (Since she already has completed nearly everything, we are getting off light). Thus, we have been put in charge of herding together a second gift bag (separated for boys and girls) and picking up the food for adults.
I think we can handle that.
Anyhow, as were were sitting around her kitchen working on our plans during merienda (tea time), we got on the subject of children’s bedtimes. We told her that in the US, the Zs used to have to be in their room by 7:30 pm, perhaps 8:00 pm at the latest, on weeknights. Upon reflection, we added that their bedtime was really almost more for us than for them, since we can’t comprehend how Argentinian parents manage to maintain a relationship without some time alone!
She said she feels as if she is always swimming upstream because Sofia comes home and complains that all of her friends go to bed at 10:00 or 10:30 pm (this is second grade, mind you).
In order to have alone-time in this country, parents have to stay up quite late, leading me to believe that Argentina is really a giant study in sleep deprivation — and it starts from a very young age. It will be interesting to see if there are long-term detriments to maintaining late night hours while eliminating the 3 hour siesta in the middle of the day that makes it all possible!
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One word; Telos.
*laugh*
The problem with a Telo is having to hire someone to watch the little peeps, which could get expensive on a regular basis! (You aren’t supposed to have the high overhead of dating if you’re married, right? *smile*)
Telo is cheaper than a divorce!