I knew the day would one day arrive when I would have to tell the girls the bunk-beds weren’t just for fort building and lining up plush toys to watch their Kung Fu Panda (current) and Hanna Montana (so last year) routines using the ladder as their main apparatus and adding a series of ribbons, wigs or sticks that most resembled samurai swords for authenticity when audiences were rounded up for a show.

I couldn’t deny them the opportunity to sleep in those bunk-beds another year. It is time. They are ready. They are old enough. The truth is I may be too old to be responsible for making the beds as straddling the top bunk for a simple fitted sheet dressing I pulled more than one muscle. I then had to lay on the lower bunk when it came time to tuck the flat sheet and comforter because I was no longer able to levitate just above the bed while tucking sides and corners for a tight fit. I tried frog hopping while tucking to pull the linens straight but gave up when the ceiling fan seemed determined to slice off my ear.

Of course I was relieved when the girls agreed Hanna (age 7) would take the top bunk. It just made sense. Every kid wants the top. She is as long as the mattress and in a couple of years she will no longer fit. Also, her track record for falling out of a big kid bed is 0 and just under 2000. Ellie who didn’t put up the fight I had anticipated fell out of her regular bed just two nights earlier for no known reason and that’s just two feet off the ground. I feared there would be a middle-of-the-night crash followed by a visit to the ER and I would have to admit I allowed a five year old to sleep on the upper bunk to which the nursing staff would stare in judgement and mutter things like, “What kind of a mother allows a five year old (hopped up on s’mores) to sleep on the top bunk? So close to a ceiling fan too?”

Night one was a success and tonight they’ll swap.

I’ll be half-sleeping with the door open, the ladder in place and a stack of crash mats on the floor. I’ll turn the fan off (fooled me once), leave a series of night lights for reference around the room and oh who am I kidding? When she falls asleep I’ll move her down and before she wakes up, put her back. Parenting 101.