The bath is done. The jammies are on. The bedtime stories have been read. The child is finally asleep. Let the golden hour commence, and I don’t mean sunset.
You know what I’m talking about. That sweet spot of time after your kids have gone to bed but before you turn in for the night. Whether you have small children or teenagers, there is something about that magical time when you are the only person still awake. For some people it is an actual hour, for others it’s a couple of hours. AND HOLY PANTS IT IS EVERYTHING.
*Disclosure: I am writing this blog in the golden hour at 9:30 at night, and I write 95% of my posts this way.
I love the golden hour. I would write sonnets about the golden hour if I could. Heck, I’d invent a machine so I could spend an entire day in the golden hour. It’s when I get stuff done. Dishes? Check. Start the laundry while you fold the previous load? Check. Tidy the house? Check. Have some solid work-from-home time? Triple check. I had no idea human beings could be so productive and efficient until I became a parent.
Sometimes I plan my golden hour tasks while I’m still at work. The list includes housework, but it can often include some of my job duties that I do best when I have no distractions. A solid 90 minutes of writing, catching up on emails, planning my monthly goals. Basically it’s a solid amount of adulting. Of course there’s always room for catching up on some TV.
My favorite golden hour activity is watching a couple episodes of The Good Place of Battlestar Galactica while folding laundry, then digging into a late night snack. I feel like I can finally exhale and zone my brain out before I reset it for the next day.
It seems we all rely on this little sliver of the day that’s just for us. When a friend of mine became a mother, I asked her how it was going and how the transition was. Her daughter was about 2 at the time. She told me “it’s exhausting, but man I’m getting things done.” I asked her what she meant. She said “I have about an hour, sometimes 90 minutes at most, after she goes to bed before I’m wiped out. But I can get so much done in that time, even while I’m watching one of my shows.”
Another friend likes to catch up on reality TV and have a beer once she gets her girls down. “I watch the Bachelor and have no shame in doing that.”
A third friend I talked to about it said she recently switched her hours at work, and has to be there at 4 a.m. That means bed at 7. “I miss that time,” she told me. “I get home and I’m rushing to do housework before picking up my kids, and then it’s off to bed at 7 so I can be up by 2:30.”
Dang.
Not all parents and caregivers have the opportunity to enjoy the golden hour. Some work multiple jobs with little to no downtime. Some have kids that fall asleep at different bedtimes. Some just are wiped out and go to bed when everyone else does. I hope they have another part of the day that’s just theirs.
If you can, enjoy the golden hour. Savor it. Do all the chores. Eat all the snacks. Watch all the shows. Then go to bed and get the rest you deserve.