A Household Word: Summer Louder than Others

BY Carol Band

My neighbors just had a new baby. His name is Jacob and he is absolutely adorable. Sometimes, when the windows are open, I can hear his cries pierce the stillness of the summer night. In the morning, I watch his weary parents push the stroller to the coffee shop at the end of the street.

“Getting any sleep?” folks inquire as they walk by.

“Not really,” the new parents report. “He was up at 2 and 4.”

Big deal. I was also up at 2 and 4 – and at 12:30 and at 3 and at 1. I’ve got two kids who are home from college and I’m getting less sleep now than I did when they were newborns – way less. In fact, I’m ready to Ferberize them.

College students sleep until lunchtime, nap in the afternoon, eat dinner at 5, nap again and then wake up and go out for the evening at 11:30 p.m. Turns out, their schedule is a lot like a newborn’s – eat, nap and party all night. The difference is, babies are little and cute; college students – not so much.

It’s not like my kids are committing crimes in the middle of the night – they are just up,
slamming doors, talking on their cell phones and carrying on all night like it is the middle of the afternoon.

I wouldn’t care about their nocturnal tendencies, except that I am someone who needs to sleep. I’m not asking for 10 hours or even the eight hours recommended by the American Medical Association. I just want the hours from midnight to 6 a.m. – hours that I would like to devote to R.E.M. so that I will be able to rise and do something called – let me explain this kids – work.

Actually, in all fairness, my kids do work. But they have summer jobs that start at 4 in the afternoon and end at 10 at night. This leaves plenty of time to come home, shower until the hot water runs out and get ready for the night. They seem to thrive on this inverted schedule. It must be youth … or maybe it’s the naps.

Having them home for the summer has been a readjustment for everyone. They’ve had to