Life After Dark
By Bronwyn in 
Remember the days when life would only really start at 10:30 pm. You’d put your dancing shoes on around 9:30pm after trying on about a hundred different outfits. You’d get little sleep that night and be up for university or work the next morning, being rather alert and attentive. This doesn’t change all that much when you become a mother- Your life only really begins after dark. You get into your sleeping “outfit” around 9:30pm . Your feet hurt as though you’ve been dancing all night and you know that in the morning, you’re going to have that feeling: the ” I only went to bed at 3am” feeling. However, the only drinks served (not that I drink) come from your bosom.
My son goes to sleep at around 7:30pm. At this point, I have to realise that I can begin using full sentences again and I don’t need to clap and say “yay” every time my husband does something. I tidy, make lunch, pack the dishwasher, do some work, watch some series and feed the dog that’s been following me around as I did all the previously mentioned. All of this is part of the unwinding process believe it or not. Once all of this is done, I can truly just relax. That is such a precious word- relax,ahhhhhh. Motherhood takes the meaning of that word to the next level.
I remember when my son was first born, I would have such an obsession with sleep. I had to be in bed by a certain time because I knew there were only a few precious moments of sleep behind the eyelids before I would be woken. 9pm was the cut off time- then I needed to be the bulk of my bedding sandwich. Now I can stay up until 11pm or when I’m brave, 12…whoa!
Ok, so maybe motherhood isn’t like the old days. There are no disco lights, only moths dancing in the lamp light…and the “smoke” is from the relaxing hot shower I took. But with the same attitude toward motherhood as we had when we were younger- boy, we’d constantly be having a “screaming lank kief” time.