I’m calling it a day. Child, you have bested me. Against all my best efforts to get you to sleep on a regular schedule you have prevailed as the most energetic of the three of us.

I’m aware that every self-help parenting magazine and book is going to call me a failure and say I’m just not persistent enough, but I’m sick of this peer pressure parenting. She wins. I lose.

Every book that said toddlers sleep 10-12 hours a day mislead me into a false sense of what is an appropriate amount of sleep for a little one. Maybe they are right, I don’t know. I only have one child to gauge it on and 8-10 seems a bit more realistic—and the hours take me back to college.

We’ve tried all the tips on scheduling and sleep pattern development, but every time we got you to sleep before 11 a.m. (after getting you up at 8 a.m. after you went to bed at 2 a.m. the night before) you punished us by staying up until 4 a.m, when you woke up at midnight. It is now clear to me that the solution is worse than the problem.

So we’re just going to have to wait until this phase ends.

Mom and Dad, I’m sorry I did this to you too—but at least now you know I know your pain.

Has anyone else out there in parenting land decided to throw in the towel on something?

(I also opted to name this blog "No Sleep 'Til Rockford," but I figured more people would get the KISS reference instead of the Beastie Boys reference)