What Do You Mean it's Bedtime?

Bed in Summer

by Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at night

And dress by yellow candle-light.

In summer, quite the other way,

I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see

The birds still hopping on the tree,

Or hear the grown-up people's feet

Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,

When all the sky is clear and blue,

And I should like so much to play,

To have to go to bed by day?

Source: A Child's Garden of Verses

I have always loved the above poem. I remember reading it when I was a little girl and loving it then too - even though I don't remember ever having to go to bed when it was light out.

We've been letting the boys stay up a bit later these days. Of course, that has less to do with it being summer and more to do with me off work for a few days here and there. They've been having a great time catching fireflies (Wesley has been using a toy fish net as a bug catcher) and running around the yard in their pajamas. The other night I put Wesley to bed at his regular time, but the sun hadn't quite set.

"Mom," he whined. "I can't go to bed yet! The sun is keeping me awake!"

Maybe I should share that poem with him.