Norwegian Wood
Posted on February 6, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 14 Comments
Athena wanted to sleep in the bathtub, for reasons that are opaque to anyone over the age of seven. We didn’t argue, although we did make her promise not to take a bath in her bed. So overall everybody got something out of it.
How did the Great Bathtub Sleeping Experiment of 2006 go? About as well as you would expect it to — at about midnight Athena decided a real bed would be more comfortable. Unfortunately, as her own bed was stripped to create her little bathtub nest, she crawled into bed with Krissy, and I, who was still up at the time, couldn’t very well relocate her to a stripped mattress. So I ended up sleeping in the guest room. I guess I could have slept in the bathtub, but let’s just say that if a seven-year-old found the bathtub less than comfortable, it’s not likely a 36-year-old is going to like it much, either.
Clearly, bathtub sleeping is not a thing to encourage on a day-to-day basis, but I think it’s fun to let a kid try new things from time to time, even if (and perhaps especially if) they’re a little silly. If nothing else, it’ll make a great story when she has her own kids and she tells about the time she made a bed in the bathtub. Childhood memories for the low, low price of a pillow and comforter in the bathtub. Sounds like a bargain to me.
Mine are 4, 2 and 9 months. Thankfully they haven’t gotten creative in their requests for bedding yet. I do get strange requests for food, though. Cake for breakfast? Cake is good for you, I was informed. I’m sure we’ll move up to such things soon though.
Eggs…eggs are in chocolate cake!That’s nutrition!
Cake for breakfast?
Just ask Bill Cosby…
My daughters are in their mid-twenties now. My youngest did spend an entire summer with a towel on as a cape. I thought she was playing Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, but can not find any pictures with Sheena wearing a cape. Anyway, she has great fun wearing her cape.
My 2 year old son asked for a Peanut Butter and Cheese sandwich…on more than one occasion. He ended up peeling the sandwich apart and eating the cheese BUT, it still had PB on the C, and he ate it.
John H: Just ask Bill Cosby…
That’s EXACTLY what I thought.
If you were still up, why couldn’t you just make her bed? Although I guess then she’d have to be in the other bed anyway while she waited for you to do that, and then get moved a second time…yeah.
(My kids spent the weekend sleeping in a tent, but in the house. The very small house. And only one of them actually made it the whole night (both nights).)
I slept in the bathtub once when I was about 12. It was an April Fool’s prank. I figured I’d scare my mother when she wandered in for a shower and found someone already in there.
So Audrey, how did it go did you scare your mom?
Sleeping in the bathtub is great practice for college. If you don’t already understand, you don’t want to know.
I was still asleep when she walked in, so I don’t remember the whole thing clearly, but she was definitely startled.
My brother and I had even better success another year when we taped up a scary alien head picture in the window across from where Mom usually sat down to have her coffee in the morning.
We recently took a 2-1/2 week driving vacation (3500 miles total). At two of the stops our twelve year old daughter ended up sleeping in the closet (at her request, mind you). She was really happy when we got the upgrade to the deluxe suite – her closet had its own light switch, so she could read in the morning without waking anybody else up.
We joked that she’d tell stories about that at school and get us charged with child neglect…
I asked my parents to let me sleep in my closet one night–they told me it was fine, as long as it wasn’t on a school night (I think I was in Kindergarten or 1st grade at the time). I don’t remember any specific impulse behind it, except that it seemed like an adventure of sorts. It wasn’t very comfortable, but I stuck it out the whole night. As I recall, after they’d agreed to it, but before I’d done it, I got them to promise that they’d allow me to pick a different place to sleep every Friday night. But I think the closet was the only time I ever did–I guess I got it out of my system.
I don’t think that sleeping in a tub is bad for a child at all. I did once when I was little and still have dreams about it. I actually found this page searching on google about people sleeping in tubs. Apparently it’s more common than I thought.