Four Good Reasons To Let Your Son Sleep With You During A Storm And Why I Won't Do It Again

To my son Tommy,

The other night the winds were blowing gusts around forty miles per hour. Between that and the occasional storm that accompanied the front, there was no way to get you to sleep on your own. So instead of fighting with you, instead of reassuring you every two minutes from downstairs and encouraging you to go to sleep, I let you come in and sleep in my bed. Here are 8 reasons that was good and bad.

• Good reason. You had a great night sleep, once you realized we weren't going to have the TV on and that snoozing with daddy was serious business.
• Bad reason. You were the only one who had a good night sleep. You are not the easiest person to have in a bed.
• Good reason. Occasionally, I would wake up and see an angelic young boy peacefully sleeping in what could be described as a Norman Rockwell scene.
• Bad reason. Those moments were heavily outnumbered by the amount of flailing limbs that connected with my groin area.
• Good reason. The whole experience gave me that feeling of fulfilling my natural fatherly instinctual role of protector.
• Bad reason. You didn't face and deal with your fear, though as a five year old I figure you will have plenty of time to do it again.
• Good reason. You woke up bright and early and refreshed and ready for school with a renewed thankfulness for your father and his willingness to protect you.
• Bad reason. Nearly two days later I am still tired and I probably could still use an ice pack for my cojones.

On the surface, it looks like a father simply sacrificed for the betterment of his child. At least that is what I tell myself as I struggle to stay awake and wonder if my other ball is going to drop back down again. I probably didn't do either of us a favor because this morning I let us all sleep in by about twenty minutes. That meant I had to take back the bad guy title from your minecraft sheep killing mom to get us out the door in time for your school. I probably won't think twice the next time you are amazingly scared and ask if you can sleep with daddy, though right now I will tell you it will never happen again. Maybe next time I will introduce you to sleeping bags and sleeping on the floor.

Sincerely with love from your dad,

Leo