One of life's cruel little jokes

I remember lying in bed one night when I was about 10, listing to my parents upstairs (my brothers and I were forced to sleep in the basement of all places!) playing trivial pursuit with their friends. I was really angry because 7:30 was way too early for a 10 year old girl to go to bed, especially one as smart and grown up as I was. As I lay there, fuming, full of 10-year old indignation, I thought, "When I'm a grown up, I'm going to stay up as late as I want every night!"
Twenty years later, as I sit surrounded by mountains of laundry and dirty dishes and sharing time lessons and PTA forms and bathroom cleaning supplies, the most lovely thing I can think of would be going to bed every night at 8:00, and I often think, "Oh, how lucky my kids are because they can go to bed at 7:30."