Parenting is chock-full of sudden occurrences like this.

My son wakes up at 6am to prepare for school. My daughter, who was supposed to wake up one hour later, woke up a few minutes after her brother.

There was no time to waste. If I allowed my daughter to remain awake, my wife would be grouchy because that’s an additional hour of caregiving responsibility.

So, I shooed my daughter back into the bedroom. Laid down beside her. I felt confident that she would fall asleep sooner or later.

I waited patiently for about ten minutes. Success! She slumbered again.

Feeling proud of myself because this could only be done when I have a good grasp of my daughter’s behavioral patterns!