Had a blast yesterday morning on the local news morning show in Jacksonville, FL with Staci Brown from The Church of Eleven22. If you’re looking for a church in Jacksonville, check them out. I got to spend the day with their staff and I love their heart and passion for people!

Tonight’s Adopt Without Debt Workshop

Eleven22 Church
14286 Beach Boulevard Suite 2, Jacksonville Florida 32250
6:30-9:00 p.m.

You can register here.

The Book
Adopt Without Debt: Creative Ways to Cover the Cost of Adoption shows you how budgeting, grants and creative fundraising can help you fulfill your adoption dream without signing away your financial freedom. It features real-life stories from more than 30 adoptive families, with $80,000 of creative fundraising ideas. MORE INFO.

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If you’re the mom of teenagers and haven’t been told at least once “You’re mean!” then I submit that you are doing it wrong.

So I decided to count the ways in which I am mean… and revel in it.

It’s hard to say which meanness factor garners the most complaints these days but I’m going to start with my favorite.

I AM THE SLEEP NAZI.

My children are 14, 14, 13 and 11.

They go to bed between 8 and 8:30. They think this is some form of cruel and unusual punishment. (We also take ALL electronic devices downstairs.)

The truth is that most nights there is quiet visiting for at least 30-45 minutes after lights go out. That’s fine. (Some nights it sounds more like a WWF match coming from the boys room. That requires an intervention and veiled threats about loss of electronics time.)

So that means they are actually falling asleep around 9 or 9:30. They wake up at 6, giving them about 9 hours of sleep. Guess what? All the research says that teens should get between 8-10 hours of sleep per night.

I volunteered to show one protesting teen the research. Eyes were rolled.

I laughed, shut the bedroom door and retreated to my quiet first floor 🙂

I don’t need someone with extra letters behind their name to tell me the amount of sleep directly affects my kid’s behaviors. They get crabby and emotional and it affects the entire family. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

I’m not saying that they’ll be going to bed at 8:30 when they are 16. Already I can see sports, homework, youth group, etc pushing at our bedtime boundaries. When part time jobs enter the picture it will become even harder. Of course there are exceptions. We’ve let them stay up later some nights this past couple weeks to watch the Olympics. I don’t say no to activities just because it means we’re out late. (But bedtime may be earlier the next night.)

So, I will continue to be The Sleep Nazi and I don’t care if they think I’m mean.

What time do your teens go to bed?