Questions covered the normal gamut of bedtime chores -
"Did you brush your teeth?'
"Did you put on your pajamas?"
"Are your clothes in the dirty clothes pile?"
"Have you said your prayers?"
To make things interesting, odd questions were thrown in -
"Have you spun around three times?"
"Did you pet the cat?"
"Did you blow your nose?"
The idea was that nobody passed the checkpoint on the first try. It didn't matter how hard we tried, we couldn't beat Charlie. There was an endless stream of oddities that could be requested of us. At some point though, we would pass every question, including "Did you tell your mom you love her?", and off to bed we would go.
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Check Point Charlie
“Check Point Charlie” was the American entry point into East Berlin from West Berlin.
Onalee and I co-opted it for the title of our bedtime prep routine. The name fit well with the bedtime routine we developed with our children. It was gamesmanship of the highest order. It created a much happier bedtime atmosphere for the family and was a precursor to their mother, and sometimes their father, sitting on the steps singing songs as the children drifted into slumber. It burned off some energy just before bedtime with the scampering to do what “Charlie” had just reminded them needed doing before they were ready for bed.
It was really fun to have the kids line-up for their turn with “Charlie” as the bedtime chores were rattled off. They would have to go scrambling to finish one or two that they had not yet taken care of and then would return to the “Charlie line” once more. Sometimes they would deliberately not take care of an item so they could go off and come back into the line. Sometimes they would try to extend the time by saying they had not done one that they already had.
We like to think it helped develop appropriate habits such as brushing teeth, washing hands and face, putting clothes away, having prayers, and expressing love to their parents. Even if it didn’t it was a wonderful delight to see the expressions on their faces when we would come up with some oddball thing they had to do. Their performance in the execution of spinning around, doing a jig, singing a song, or making a funny face as a requirement to go to bed was always enormously entertaining and amusing and left a smile on their faces and that of their adoring parents. With five or six kids to get through “Check Point Charlie” it,of necessity, was a quickly repeated list, required some imagination, and was orderly chaos just before bedtime. “Hey kids! It’s time for Check Point Charlie!”
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