In the category, Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree: At 10:30 last night DH was huffing about DS8 still being awake and reading. "Most people read to fall asleep. You and DS are the only people I know who get MORE AWAKE the longer you read." I guess I should show DH these posts

I can't say much to dd12 about reading late. A week ago, I started reading a book at 10:00 pm and finished it at 5:20 am. It hurt getting up 20 minutes later, but the book was GOOD.

^ That. The only one that I seriously regret was the all-nighter to read Follett's sequel to Pillars of the Earth-- World Without End-- only to find that nothing particularly horrible happened to any of those awful people that he'd been making me feel profound apathy to disgust over for a thousand pages and change. If it hadn't been a library book, I might have lit it on fire at the conclusion of that 1100 pages and 12 hours of my life that I'm never getting back... I waited over a month for that copy, too.

--Ahem.

But mostly, I never regret my late-night reading. DD is guilty of it, as well, and has been since she learned to read. Oops. Apples, trees. I can recall reading by hallway light at night-- in the gap under my bedroom door. I can even recall reading by moonlight a few times when I was in elementary school. My mother was convinced it was going to ruin my eyes. It seems not, since I only need reading glasses even now in my fifth decade of late-night reading.

I sort of figured I wouldn't be the only one on here to have read by the hallway light...

And speaking of apples and trees, DS6 asked about photocopying the pages of a library book last night since he loves it so much. Of course we explained the whole copyright thing, but it was so adorable!

Watched the kiddie movie "Beethoven" with DS4 over the weekend. When the story features a boy being bullied over lunch, I ask DS what he thinks the bullied boy should do, and what bystanders should do. Without missing a beat, he answers, "Put lots of laxatives in the bullies' food."

Talking about animals at risk of extinction, DS6 could see absolutely no moral dilemma in killing people who kill elephants for their tusks.

I lost the first one - hope this doesn't show up twice:

When we returned from dinner tonight I moaned that house was already a mess again (it was clean yesterday). DD11 said just one word:
"Entropy"
It's true!! In our house it's almost pointless to stop the descent into disorder.

Next, DD pulled the ol' late night "Mom, I have a question." She began discussing what it would be like to live in a 2 dimensional world; what are dimensions, really; that some think there are 11 dimensions...... I then insisted it was time for sleep!!!
This is after she spent some time earlier discussing how some folk believe that time is not really linear,but all things happen at the same time. Our brains cannot fathom that so we perceive time as moving forward.
Sheesh. I so do not have my child's brain. I Googled the 11 string idea and found myself on "Physics Forum". Then DD11 came out of her bedroom saying she couldn't sleep so I had to carry her to bed and give her mommy pillows to help her sleep.

Update on this: So we bought the book for him, thinking he actually wanted to own it. But as soon as we gave it to him, he asked if we could now photocopy those pages for him. Apparently, his purpose in asking for the book was strictly to get those photocopies. He only asked us to buy the book to respect the author's copyright (we had loosely explained that he couldn't just photocopy the library book otherwise the author wouldn't be paid for his work).

So DS6 now has a full handle on trademarks, patents and copyright.

And a few bonus sweet/funny comments (because I can't share them anywhere else):

"I love water, because I can see things that have happened in the past reflected in the water. Bad or mean people would see things that frighten them, but I see good things. Like when I would be petting our cat, or snuggling with my family."

and:

"You know why blue is my favourite colour? Because it’s a sad colour, and I don’t like to feel too much. Blue helps me feel calm. I like happy feelings too, and sometimes they make me feel calm. But blue is still my favourite colour."

Oh, how I love to listen to him (when he isn't driving me crazy).

It's Galadriel's mirror!

I am very impressed - I used to do copyright law, and I can tell you, a lot of grow ups don't get it!

Our DDs should be friends! Mine likes to pull out the late night philosophical and scientific questions too - and my poor old brain has to struggle to pull out a dusty old grasp of concepts like karma and reincarnation, or whether the sun rotates I also do a lot of late-night googling to tell her the answer next morning (yes, the sun rotates!)

Has your DD read A Wrinkle in Time? There's a nice little scene where the characters jump through time and space and accidentally stop over in a two-dimensional world