Are the Blue Jays worth staying up for? That's a question parents are asking themselves

By the time Blue Jays fan Suzanne Jangda and her two kids arrived at school Thursday morning the yard was empty and students were already inside. They were late.

The morning had been a scramble and "hard for all of us," said Jangda, because they had stayed up later than usual to watch the Jays trounce the Seattle Mariners in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

"I am a big Blue Jays fan and turning my kids into them, too, is my mission," said Jangda, who was anticipating another late school night for Thursday's game, and a more manageable Friday night game as the series continued from Seattle's T-Mobile Park.

Wednesday's game ran nearly three hours long, but she had let the boys watch until the fifth inning, about an hour after their usual 8 p.m. bedtime and long enough to catch George Springer's homer.

That was after the four- and seven-year-olds powered through a sluggish Tuesday, thanks to a later night Monday watching the second game in the best-of-seven series.

"It doesn't happen all the time. Embrace it if you can," Jangda reasoned in a late afternoon phone interview.

By early evening Thursday, it was clear Jangda's kids needed to catch up on rest.

"Turns out my kids are definitely showing TIRED," Jangda said by text in a 7 p.m. update, about an hour-and-a-half before Game 4's first pitch.

"So I'm going out to a bar to watch with friends tonight, and making them go to bed at 8 like usual. Without me at home watching, they won't be as sucked in."

Like many baseball fans with school-aged kids, Jangda found herself weighing the value of cheering on the Jays' championship bid as a family against the likely prospect of weary days.

Parents keen to share their Blue Jays fervour with their children should be