Time for bed

No, I don't mean it like that ....

Every night, at least on week-nights, Son 2 goes to bed right after dinner. Usually this isn't remarkable, because usually (what with one thing and another) we have dinner kind of late so it's already closing in on 9:00 by the time we are done. Son 2 is 13, but he has never had the energy or stamina of Son 1; he wears out more easily and always has. So when it is closing in on 9:00, he's ready for bed.

But once in a while we get our act together a little earlier, and we're done eating by 7:30 or so. Like tonight. And what does he do then, when it can't be any later than a quarter of 8:00?

"I'm going to brush my teeth and go to bed. Good night."

It has happened a few times now, consistently enough that I have noticed. And I wish I understood why.

Of course, there could be lots of reasons. Maybe he really is tired. Maybe he finds that going to bed early makes it easier for him to get up in the morning. Maybe he has discovered how to masturbate, and is practising.

But somehow I can't avoid the feeling that he looks just like I do around Wife, that he just wants with all his might to be somewhere else. And even if that's the case, there could be many reasons. That I'm boring. That I'm terminally square. That I'm old and clueless. (While he's 13, I'm 50.)

Or have I done something he is mad at? Or do I just make him profoundly uncomfortable when I am around, as Wife does me? Or what?

I wish I knew. It's not even that I mind being alone. It's not like I had something planned for the evening, that he is dropping out of. Which brings us back to the possibility that maybe staying up is just boring for him. It could be true.

I wish I knew.