I haven’t slept in about 10 years. Okay, I’m exaggerating…a little. My insomnia started when I was pregnant with my daughter, and it hasn’t let up since.

I now hold the belief that only single people, with no kids, no pets and quiet neighbors, actually sleep. They also must not live near an airport, and can’t keep their windows open to allow the sound of chirping birds to come through. Anyone wanna lend me a BB gun?

My lack of sleep was compounded by having two preemies who both wore heart monitors. You have never really heard an alarm, until you’ve heard one that tells you your baby isn’t breathing, or their heart rate has dropped dangerously low…at 3:00 AM. For my next blog post, I will be discussing adrenaline rush.

Now my dog is getting old, and likes to nudge me with her cold, wet nose to let me know she needs to poop, or puke, or because she feels the need to be petted in the wee hours.

And, there are kids having bad dreams and moving about in the night. I’m always on high alert when I hear one of them. You never know when vomit will strike.

Add to that, my husband’s snoring…okay, not fair…everyone has a husband who snores. But, I’m also lucky enough to have one who suffers from night terrors. My wonderful guy once woke me by pulling me out of bed by my ankles while screaming, “Get out of here! Get out of here!” And another time, he jumped from the bed with all the covers, hit a picture off the wall, and ran into the closet, knocking all the clothes down in the process. He claimed a marching band was coming toward us, and we were about to get trampled.

I don’t know if I didn’t sleep that night because he startled me…or if I was disturbed that he left me there to get stomped by people with wind instruments.

It seems as though my nine year old daughter has been playing too much Guitar Hero, because when I picked her up from school on Friday she said, “Mom, Barracuda has been stuck in my head all day.”

Kids today seem so different than the kids I knew growing up in the 70’s. I realize that makes me sound old enough to wear knee-high stockings and a plastic hair cover, but it’s true.

Most recently, I’ve taken notice of their “can do” attitude. Having been brought up in an era when they don’t keep score at soccer games, when every kid gets a trophy at the end of softball season, and when computer games tell you it’s okay to lose…kids today receive an incredible amount of affirmation.

Yesterday my nine year old daughter had a friend over, and I had a back window open so I could hear them playing in the yard.

Apparently they were attempting to do something with a degree of risk, because I heard my daughter’s friend say, “You can do it! Believe in yourself! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!!”

I couldn’t help but flash back to when I was nine and had just watched my friends swing across a ravine on a rickety vine. They were all waiting for me on the other side, and when they swung the vine back to me, I got nervous and hesitated. But, instead of saying, “You can do it”, they said, “Come on! Hurry up, you pansy!”

Maybe, just maybe, things are changing for the better.

My five year old son has a game he likes to play, where he runs up our steps and I run after him trying to pinch him. We do it whenever we’re both going upstairs. I created this method to get him in the vicinity of the bathtub, without any struggle.

But, please take my advice. Before you consider implementing this pinching game, you should also consider that your child may one day run down the main aisle at Target, look over his shoulder and loudly shout, “Hey Mom!! Come get me, and pinch my butt!”

Just hypothetically…