Poor Seven, like her mother before her, has a self-defeating tendency to jump on the hamster wheel of despair just as she’s warmly tucked into her cosy bed and supposed to be falling asleep.
Instead, she stays awake until well after 10 o’clock, feeling vaguely anxious about circumstances beyond her control, intermittently coming downstairs to complain about imaginary ailments or terrifying dreams she has had, despite not having slept yet. I must confess that while I often feel really sorry for her, I also get massively irritated by the constant interruptions into my precious grownup time when I am trying to read a book or distract her father from his interminable equations by dancing around in frilly underwear. (Oh, and lest any of you feel a pang of envy at my exotic love life, please be assured this hardly ever works as I frequently prove to be less alluring than the theoretical energy reduction limit of metallic base elements).
I had been vaguely promising that I would search for a self-hypnosis cd I used to have that might help her sleep, but we kept on forgetting and she’d only remind me, reproachfully, when I couldn’t actually do anything about it like in the middle of a traffic jam or when I was on an important business call. Months slipped by with her going to bed later and later and getting more and more anxious until on Saturday night, when she had worked herself up into a near-rage of worry at 9pm after an evening out, I decided to take decisive action and turned to the trusty computer while her dad attempted to calm her into her pyjamas and brush her teeth.
I spent about ten minutes researching my subject – honestly, there’s not a lot out there that isn’t massively irritating – but I did come across several recommendations for the music and stories of Lori Lite, and, more essentially, you could download her work from iTunes which was about the longest delivery time I could stomach. I chose to overlook the pukey photo of a floating child in the lotus position and forgave her the psychic waft of incense that drifted my way as the tracks ticked through my computer to the iPod. I hoped that this would be the balm on Seven’s psyche that would enable her to drift happily to the Land of Nod, and allow me to the The Paris Wife if not The Joy of Sex.
I took all tv and videos off the device so she wouldn’t be tempted to watch Word Girl or similar, and brought it to her upstairs along with her headphones. She snuggled happily into her pillow, started listening to the gentle voice and plinky-plonky spa music, and about 10 minutes later she was out cold.
WIN!
Next morning she said she’d LOVED the stories, wanted to listen again. So she did. And she slept like a log.
So, Lori Lite, you are not paying me for this, I don’t know you at all, but you are a new hero in our household. I may be tempted to buy one of your grownup recordings for myself, actually.
If you’d like to buy some of her work for yourself or for your children, you can look her up on iTunes or check out her website Stress Free Kids.
Sleep well!
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