When my children were little, as with most children, they had a nightly routine before being put to bed. This entailed taking a bath, stepping into their jammies, brushing their teeth, and having a bedtime story read to them.
However, unlike so many children in our area, our children were living in a two party religious belief household. This presented a problem as bedtime prayer is common and my children wanted to be like the rest of the children in the neighborhood. It wasn't necessarily the need to get on their knees with their hands clasped together pointing heavenward. It was wanting the norm of what the other children did and the closeness of a parent participating with them.
I was raised Latter-Day Saint (Mormon) and my then-husband was raised Catholic. Neither one of us were practicing our respective religions but still felt deep convictions when it came to who God is or what a prayer entailed and neither was about to bend on the subject but, not wanting our children to suffer an impasse, I devised a bedtime ritual that neither of us could find fault in.
At the end of whatever Disney book had just been read, I'd tuck each of the children in and then I'd start. We called them angel kisses (which I now know to be butterfly kisses) because they were as soft as wings on an angel. I would start fluttering my eyelash on their forhead, each of us making a wish. Repeating the wish process with each kiss placement, I would move to the chin, left cheek, right cheek, and nose. The ritual would then end with a traditional kiss.
My children are much older now and I can't even recall their ages when this ritual ended. Probably about the time that they decided that they wanted to stand out in a crowd. Not blend in. And I'm proud, as a mother should be, that my children are independant and free thinkers and that I'm lucky enough to have them in my life.
However, I can't help but cherish and miss the days when something so simple was the most highly anticipated thing in their day.
