Go the F***k to Sleep: A bedtime Story

I think as parents, we have at one time or another, really, really prayed hard our child(ren) would ease gently into the beds and immediately fall fast asleep. There are times when we really need our grown-up-kid-free peace and quiet. There are times we need our children, whom we love dearly with big parental hearts, to go to bed so we can actually unwind or process a mind-blowing day from hell. As parenthood tends to work out, it seems when parents need that sorta time is most often when our child(ren) decide sleep is a furry, kid-eating monster lurking in the shadows of night. Sleep is a demon that can only be slayed by children keeping their eyes open, requesting bathroom visits, drinking 5 gallons of water, eating 20 lbs of food and asking parents for one more story. Sleep also will not eat good boys and girls if they call for their parents every five to ten minutes from the moment those parents leave the kid's line of sight.

For those occurrences in our parental life, we tend to feel a little (or a lot) guilty for wanting the little people we love to leave us alone so that we can be more than "Mommy" or "Daddy" for a couple hours in the evening. You rarely express that true, valid and perfectly normal thought: Please go the eff to sleep, dear spawn of mine. No one wants to appear to not love every single moment of parenthood even when you are covered with poop/snot/vomit/barf or have a headache/suffering from exhaustion/ had a rough day/PMS/or just need to remember how to form a complete thought, express it to another adult (whom you sometimes forget exist).

For those times, I personally wish I could read this book. (the link may not work because it was from facebook and I'm not entirely sure how facebook really works, but see below) You'd never, ever read it to your kid(s), but it sure feels go to know you aren't the only parent that thinks it.

From C. Kemp's photo album. It's the front cover, but there is a whole book...

 And I'm so tired, that my post title has too many stars!