Small Rebellions

Bedtime has always been somewhat fraught for Margaret.  She was born, as far as I can tell, angry about the fact that she was expected to sleep at any time.

We spent most of the first year of her life tying her up to get her to sleep.

And then we just confined her in a cage.

But early on (like 20 months) she learned to climb out of the cage, and so we had to move her into a bed.

This began the really terrible part of her sleeping plan.  She had freedom to come out and bug us.  And she did.

So we installed a lock on her door, and sometimes we would just close it.

Then we potty trained her, and that meant she needed access to the toilet.  

So we had to unlock the door.

This began another series of bedtime escapes and arguments.

She's pretty much calmed down now, and will go to sleep with only an occasional nighttime foray out into the house to tell us something important, like that she wants to tell us something.

But she bucks our rules in small ways, denying our rights to tell her where to put her head.