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My Conversation with Nathan

Last night, when he was supposed to be sleeping, Jeff let us know that Nate was getting out of bed to turn on his bedroom light. Each time we instructed Jeff to tell him to turn off his light, he would return and tell us that he would continue to get out of bed and turn it on again.

I finally went downstairs and instructed Nate to turn off his light so he could sleep. He said, "but Dad, I need to sleep with my light on."

I reminded him that he has never slept with his light on and it was not cool to begin to do so now.

"But Dad, I'm going to sleep with the light on, because it is okay."

"Well, if you sleep with the light on, it will wake you up in the middle of the night and you won't be able to sleep and then you'll be grumpy in the morning because you didn't get enough sleep."

"No, Dad, the light won't keep me up."

"Why do you want to sleep with the light on?"

"Because Bryson told me that there are monsters and ghosts in my room."

"Ghost and monsters aren't real. Bryson was teasing you. There is no such thing."

"I just want to have my light on tonight, because I will have bad dreams."

"Just think happy thoughts and you won't have any bad dreams."

"I can't think happy thoughts with the light off, so when you go upstairs, I'm just going to get out of bed and turn the light on again."

"You can't do that, because if you turn on the light it will burn electricity and it will cost me so much money that I'll have to spend all of my money on electricity and I won't be able to afford your cereal."

"Well, what happens if you don't get enough sleep?"

"You would get sick, because your body needs sleep."

"What happens if you don't eat your cereal?"

"You would get sick, because your body needs food."

"What is more important, sleep or food?"

"Sleep and food are both very important. You need both, so to make this work, I need to turn off your light so I don't have to spend too much money on electricity and then I'll have money left over for your cereal so that you are getting sleep and food........good night!"

You've gotta love the logic with a 5 year old.

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