My first children had to take naps. My last children did not. I still needed an hour's break to rest in. How did I get that rest?

I clearly remember having to take naps as a child when I did not need them. I listened to lawn mowers, flies, buzzing in the screen, a fan humming ... I counted the ceiling tiles a million times, it seemed. I remember thinking how VERY long an hour was. I think I should have been allowed to be playing quietly instead.

So by the time my last children were little, I had developed a way of life that was much easier on me, and on my children. I did not have to wonder if each child was old enough not to need a nap any more. I did not have to answer my child's question "may I come out now?" every five minutes any more.

I babyproofed my babies' rooms very well. Then I put in low toddler beds, put a pillow on the floor for a soft landing, and let the babies out of cribs at about fourteen months old. Every afternoon I put a baby gate on the doorway, and set the timer for an hour. They knew when I put up the gate, and set the timer outside their rooms, that it was "mommy's peace time," and they could not come out, or call to me until it dinged.

None of them ever fussed much about this, as they grew up with it. I always had bottles of juice in their rooms, and containers of crackers or something to eat that wouldn't make too much of a mess. They had lots of toys, and kept busy without a problem, for the most part. Many times they fell asleep, and slept through the dinger.

At bedtime it was different. Four little ones less than three years apart, meant wild fun at bedtime if I didn't have a plan. So I put them to bed, kiss, hug and pray with them, then tell them they could not talk any more. I turned on a children's tape of soft hymns. Then I lay down with a pillow outside the two bedroom doors, with the doors open. I lay there and read a book by a nightlight. Every time a child began to say something, I made a sharp "SH!", and no more. It did not take long before they all were asleep.

If I did not do this, they would play, and shriek, and get more and more excited, and as the evening wore on, more and more crabby, and I would not get any peace. After I invented this, I wished I had thought of it for the first children.