Responsibility

I just left my husband upstairs with our three year old.  She was trying to bargain her way out of bedtime and it was his turn to read books.  He fell asleep and I just left them upstairs together. I shut the door and walked out.  I suppose she could wreak havoc on the bedroom and mess it up a bit, but honestly, with two young children around, the bedroom is a complete disaster anyway.  What else might go wrong?  She might draw all over him with the markers or stay up another hour or two, but what do I care, I am downstairs, alone, writing and blissfully uninvolved.  

We keep talking about how we need to be on the same page with discipline, but, sometimes you just have to throw in the towel.  

What better lesson to teach than wearing yourself out and then putting yourself to bed.  Usually our bargaining chip every night is that if she behaves and stops whining an goes to sleep, mommy will come in the room for a while.  I am angling for something else.  If you misbehave long enough, I will shut you in the room with daddy and he will fall asleep and you can learn self-control enough to get bored and put yourself to bed. 

Tonight it is working brilliantly.

The only catch? I just locked myself out of the house in the cold!

Amendment.  Don't let sleeping dogs lie.  They wake up incoherent, come downstairs looking for a pen cap or some other nutty thing and don't have enough wits about them to just brush teeth and go to bed.  An hour long, over-tired screaming, whining fest ensues, little sister is awoken and one hour later all of our nerves are shot.