Bed Time
My parents were always pretty strict on bedtimes- before the age of 11 I would be in bed at 8 o'clock most nights.*

However, I also have a younger brother, who is 6 years younger than me. Now, our Sunday night 'treat' would be to watch the ITV drama/soap Heartbeat**, which my sister and I loved, and we would be allowed to watch even though it finished at the dizzyingly late time of 9 o'clock! Get in!

One small snag though, the little terror of a little bother (o what wit!) who would insist that he be allowed to watch it too, despite clearly having no idea of what was going on due to his tender years of age (5). What to do? Well clearly my parents were not going to let him up much past his usual bedtime (7 o'clock), and whilst 8 o'clock was borderline acceptable, allowing him to stay up until 9 was certainly not going to happen!

However, ITV came to the rescue through an unlikely saviour...the advert break! So Sunday night would go thus: we would all pile into our front room to watch Heartbeat at 8 o'clock. 15 minutes in the first advert break would kick in. We would all exclaim in loud voices what a great episode it was, and then 'go to bed', taking my brother with us. Then, with Blackadderesque cunning, my sister and I would come up with an excuse to go downstairs (normally to get a drink, he never twigged) and would happily watch the remainder of the program safe in the knowledge the brother was blissfully unaware of our diabolical slyness as he slept. The poor kid thought that Heartbeat was only 15 minutes long until he was 11 and found us out! Bless.

*I don't consider this to be a particularly bad thing, whilst obviously I moaned and wailed about this through my teeth at the time it definitely helped me to do well at school as I could keep my eyes open! Additionally the theme of early bed times is the only tenuous link to over protective parenting. Which isn't necessarily over protective parenting. No apologies for confusion or content. Trading standards have been informed. .

**I'm still not sure how I considered this to be a treat.
(xerophytic has no idea, Thu 10 Sep 2009, 16:52, 3 replies)

Reminds me...
Same kinda thing - younger sister. Mum used to put us to bed at 7.30 or so, then I'd creep, ninja style, downstairs to watch The 6 Million Dollar Man.

Heh...clicks for the memory
( snee held his breath since, Fri 11 Sep 2009, 8:46, closed)

C'est la vie
In my day it were That's Life and I would eke out every last second by insisting on watching the scrolling cartoons type thingy at the end.

It's not the program that is the treat, just the ability to prevent Monday arriving by just a few more seconds...
(wackywavinginflatablearmflailingtubeman Hi, I'm Al Harrington..., Fri 11 Sep 2009, 12:55, closed)

I used to watch Heartbeat to avoid bed, too!
However, I hated it, and still do, it reminds me of school and miserable life in Yorkshire...

I only told my parents I enjoyed it to stay up. I still can't work out why I would put myself through the anguish of watching it, just to stay up?!
(The Kwyjibo A big, dumb, balding North American ape., Wed 16 Sep 2009, 16:23, closed)