No more New Zealand New Year's

 Last year we made a New Year’s resolution to stay up until midnight next New Year’s Eve. The time has come.  

It’s my daughter’s one and only wish. Now that she’s 13, and likely won’t be with us much longer on nights such as these, we gave in. 

Not that it’s happened yet. There are a lot of factors involved, like keeping our eyes open. 

It’s going to take some preparation. A monumental shift in circadian rhythm will need to occur beginning, well... yesterday. Darn it, we’re already behind! We’re like government when it comes to changing bed times – it takes a crisis to get any action. 

Our problems with staying up late could be age related, but I’d say it’s more kid related. Once you have kids, some of us forget how to sleep. In her first two years of life, she tormented us with volatile sleep patterns, and for years afterward she rarely slept in past six. 

It ruined us. To this day, if we sleep past seven, we wonder if we’re suffering from some kind of illness. 

 Now our daughter has done a full teenaged 180. You can’t get her out of bed in the morning unless you yank her out by her arms. And just like our cat, her energy levels begin to peak at nine pm. This is terrible for two parents who were never night owls. As we’ve observed, our time schedule eerily resembles that of a nursing home. 

We like to “prepare ourselves” for bed at 8:30. That’s the last call for any “late night” adventures. By nine o’clock we’ll ease ourselves under the covers with a book or two. By ten, there’s little to no chance we’re conscious. 

The middle of the night poses other issues. A two o'clock wake-up might require some more reading. Far worse is the five o’clock wake-up, when the cold sweats begin. It’s a critical moment where one might never fall asleep again... until nine pm the next night. 

I look at my daughter with envy, as she sleeps through people talking, dogs barking and earthquakes (yes, we experienced a minor one a few years back). She doesn’t stir. 

As far as her late-night energy, we suspect the sleeping genes skipped a few generations. My 97-year-old grandmother, who is still a night owl, used to sew late into the night. The light in her sewing room would remain on while their bedroom, where my grandpa lay sound asleep, would be dark. 

I must get it from him. At the boarding school I attended, in addition to being known as the “coolest kid in school” (I suspect), I was also known as the “one who went to bed earliest.” I went to bed at 11 pm – that was considered early. I can’t even imagine going to bed every night at 11 pm. It would ruin me. 

Going to sleep after midnight might take some time to recover, but we’ll try it. No more New Zealand New Year’s. This year, we’re doing it right. 

Come midnight, mountain standard time (or whatever time we’re on now), 2021 will be cheerily welcomed.  

 For more reasons than we can count.