Copyright: Maggie May
My son, Sam, brought our granddaughters round just before bedtime last Sunday. They had been bathed and had had their hair washed and all they needed was a snack and their teeth brushed because they were staying overnight so that I could take them to school in the morning, as Sam had an early appointment next day.
After they'd eaten, I wanted them to settle down quickly and go to bed straight away. However, they had other ideas and seemed quite lively.
In desperation I said, "Look if you don't go to bed now............. (I was furiously thinking of a suitable thing that would happen to them) .......... then The Nine O'Clock Fairy will be here and then you'll know it!"
At that, the girls really got the giggles and Amber said, "Thats funny, I've never seen her before and I've been up much later than this."
With a straight face I reminded her that there was school the next day and perhaps the fairy didn't need to come on Fridays and Saturdays, only on days when children might miss school if they didn't get to bed early enough because they overslept.
I realised then that I had psyched them up even further with this silly story and by now they were bouncing on the bed, squealing with laughter.
"You're the Nine O'Clock Fairy, Grannie. Its you, its you."
After a while I left them to calm down and hoped they'd get into bed. There was eventual silence and that was the last I heard until the morning.
However, even though Sam had asked me to wake him up by a certain time, he had great difficulty waking up, being an owl by nature, rather than an early bird. The girls always bounce straight out of bed and I heard them call up to him, "If you don't watch out, The Nine O'Clock Fairy will be after you. The morning one."
So now we seem to play along with The Nine O'Clock Fairy fantasy.
I sometimes wonder if, as I get older, I become more like a child myself.
