Parenting During a Pandemic: Mom as Football Star

I've never thought of myself as any kind of great athlete. I've always loved to bike, and in recent years have taken up recreational running. I can also walk crazy distances. Back in the day--as in way, way back--I played volleyball and basketball. But that's mostly it for my athletic endeavors. Recently, I've come to realize that I have unacknowledged athletic prowess which I would say falls under the heading of "blocking and tackling." Fortunatley or not, that prowess has nothing to do with actual gridiron games, and everything to do with trying to stave off some kind of disaster on the home front. 

Last night was a perfect example. All went really well for my eldest son's return home from Officer Development School in Newport, Rhode Island. My daughter had decorated our apartment within an inch of its life to celebrate that, but mostly to celebrate her brother's birthday, which was the day before. Her decorations included putting up a gold lame curtain in front of the door to the bedroom that my sons share. All good, so far. But some time in the middle of the night, Noah must have realized that part of the curtain came down. Not able to take it in stride and just go back to bed, he came in to wake up my husband and me, and to perseverate on getting the curtain back up. "We'll do it in the morning" was not going to fly. And my husband, who'd had 6+ hours of roundtrip driving under his belt that day, and had an early work start ahead of him, was instantly agitated. Which of course made Noah redouble his efforts, adding his "Don't be angry, daddy" to the mix. Which had the opposite effect, since all my husband wanted to do was go back to sleep. And Noah was the obstacle in his way. 

Dog tired though I was, I got out of bed and tried to rehang the curtain myself. No luck, since I couldn't find strong enough tape. So I tried to mollify Noah by climbing into his brother's bed, hoping I could coax Noah that way to go back to sleep. But up he popped again, back into my bedroom. Desperately trying to keep him from waking my husband again, I fairly scream-whispered, "Let's go back to bed. We'll fix the curtain in the morning." His older brother, conveniently, had fallen asleep in the den, meaning at least I didn't have to wake him when I went back to their shared room. This time, I got into bed with Noah hoping, in vain, that being nearly on top of him would make it easier for me to keep him from getting up again. Of course that didn't work. So again I got up. I looked around for some stronger tape and hung the curtain much lower. It seemed to stick. Of course the height was a concern, but I managed to convince Noah that it was ok just like that. And he actually went back to bed. I woke in the morning in my own bed, though I've honestly no idea how and when I got myself there. Per usual, I woke exhausted from another night of interrupted sleep, but relieved that my blocking and tackling averted disaster this time. And allowed my husband and my other kids to get a good night's sleep.