More popcorn and sugary drinks.
Quality cartoons and hide and seek.  

An hour past their de facto bedtime.
Two hours past ours.  

We ought to put them to bed
but what does “ought” mean
to three early tweens
when grandparents snip a string
on the balloon bouquet of rules
their parents gave them to hold?  

We validate what they already know –
every seatbelt eventually unbuckles.