Just another miserable night of not going to bed around here. I feel like I'm a pretty passable parent all-around, but I am absolutely completely awful at bedtime and nighttime. Also mornings. Let's throw those in there, too.

I thought things might be different this autumn because Mac turned four. When Shef turned four, he started sleeping. He was motivated by the money we started paying him for doing so. Turns out, Mac isn't motivated by money. He loses it and throws it around. Then he decides he doesn't want to buy anything. WHY?! What about the STUFF?!

Still, I thought things might be different also because he started school. But guess what? They let him nap there. His teacher said he is "the hardest kid they've ever had to wake up." You're telling me. "Really!" she remarked. "We pick him up out of his cot and plop him down, and he falls over and stays asleep." His friends tell me at extended day that they just run all around him with the lights on and stuff while he lies there.

So, I'm pretty sure the napping isn't helping the bedtime. Also not helping the bedtime is the natural night owl rhythm. Also not helping is the ridiculous amount of stubbornness and manipulation.

Next on the solution list: melatonin. Can you give that to four year-olds? I'm totally asking the pediatrician. If not melatonin, how about some kind of legal kiddy sedative? Nutritional healing? I'm totally looking this up.