Dad lets 7-year-old daughter stay up late to teach her the importance of sleep, sparking disagreement with his wife: 'I thought the mission was a success but my wife questioned my parenting technique'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Nov 23, 2024 12:00 PM EST

As a kid, bedtime is one of the ultimate constraints; being forced to go to bed right at an exact time every night feels like authoritarian oppression, almost symbolic of the limitations being imposed upon you. Of course, when you're seven years old, your bedtime is really for your own good, it's not really like you can be trusted to make your own decisions at that point for whether or not you're tired. But still, who among us didn't "cheat" our bedtimes, playing in our rooms long after our parents thought we had gone to sleep or staying up late under the covers playing Gameboy as an escape from what we even then felt was a dull reality, then paying the price the following day with drooping eyelids.

This little girl hated her bedtimes, which became a nightly point of conflict between her and her parents. When traditional parenting techniques failed, her dad had an idea: let her stay up all night if she wanted to; that way, she'd learn the importance of sleep when she struggles to make it through a difficult following day. While the dad felt this technique was successful, his wife wasn't so sure, causing the dad to turn to this online community to get outsiders' opinions.