So I extended Huck's bedtime ritual considerably tonight

My kids go to bed early.  Worm at 6:30 and Huck at 7:00.  I realize this is not the norm, but it is necessary for their health and my sanity.  Tonight I didn't make it out of Huck's room until 7:28.  That probably sounds like no big deal to you, but it REALLY is.  

He is 6 years old.  6 year olds need 12 hours of sleep a night.  He will wake up no later than 6:30 tomorrow morning no matter what time he falls asleep.  Since we instituted the 7 p.m. bedtime he has been a noticeably happier & healthier kid.  He truly does not get sick as often.

Worm gets 12 hours at night and at least 2 during the day.  He is 18 months old and has never been on antibiotics.  I have only taken him to the doctor one time outside of well baby visits. I thought he had an ear infection, turns out he was just teething really early.

Sleep is vital for kids, people.  If your kids don't get enough sleep consider changing that.  The long term benefits are worth the short term hassle. You are not doing them any favors by letting them stay up late. The key is consistency in your routine starting as early in the day as you can.  Our consistency starts at 3 p.m. for Huck (I keep Worm consistent all day since he still naps).  We do pretty much the same thing at the same time from 3 p.m. until lights out, even on weekends as best we can.

Anyway, we hit a snag tonight.  After we brush teeth I turn Huck's TV to channel 6116 Sirius Kids Music, we listen to this while we read books and I leave it on all night for him.  But tonight it WASN'T THERE!  There was no channel 6116!  

He began to cry.  Huck in crying mode, especially at bedtime, is very hard to recover from.  It can last hours if you don't nip it in the bud.  I scurried around and found an alternate kid music channel.  Then, to distract him I read two chapters from a new book and two chapters from another new book (he likes to have several stories going at once just like me).  He is not stupid. He can hear the music in the background and he knows it sucks.  It's the kind of music that gives kid music a bad reputation. He may not be sophisticated, but he knows crap when he hears it.  

It is now 7:14 p.m.  Normally I would do the kissing & hugging thing and walk out of his room, but he is on the verge of tears.  So I lay down next to him and we tell each other a silly story.

It is now 7:25 p.m.  He is looking iffy and I think I hear Raffi coming from the T.V.  Raffi?  Is this 1983?  Okay, I cannot let my kid fall asleep to "Baby Beluga".  Seriously, I consider it child abuse.  So I do the unthinkable, I let him play with my hair.

It is now 7:28 p.m.  I cannot take the hair twirling any longer.  Three minutes of having my hair messed with is like three minutes of the emergency broadcasting test signal.  I just pray for it to be over from the first second and it never gets any more bearable.

I peel myself away and assure him I will figure out a solution.  I suppose I will call Dish Network tomorrow and see what happened.  I hope the channel is not gone for good. We have considered switching back to cable in the past.  If there is a decent kids music channel on their line-up they will probably have a new customer by the end of the week.