sleep deprivation

I always knew it, that whole thing about how important sleep is to one’s mental state (at least it is for mine), and with my girls I’m pretty adamant about the amount of sleep they get. Some might say I am too strict in this particular area, but I always thought it was better to err on the side of caution. Bedtime debates between my girls and I are not so frequent around these parts. On the rare occasion it does happen, it's about minutes, never hours.

My oldest girls went to a horse show last week and came home wiped out. I knew they would, but didn’t really anticipate how much it would effect them. Needless to say their first night back was interesting, but not in the way I had thought.

I had assumed my girls would blissfully drift into a sweet sleep in the comfort of their own beds. Not so. Exhaustion put their defenses down and everything they had been holding in just came out. Pour out actually.

As hard as it was to hear things that were bothering them I knew it was good. It’s toxic holding things in and thankfully they felt safe enough with me to let it all out. When they had finished everything felt lighter, even the look in their eyes seemed different.

My girls have always been great at expressing themselves and their feelings, but this moment provided the perfect storm for letting everything out even more. I’m thinking this must be the silver lining to pure exhaustion. Not a bad thing actually. Not that I want this to happen too often, but okay, I’m open to it.