Signal & Brus

🇸🇪 Svenska · 🇬🇧 English · 🇪🇸 Español

A woman told me that she had struggled to get her son to fall asleep. It reminded me of a little trick I used with my own children.

Sometimes they said they were far too awake to sleep. Instead of arguing, I agreed that we should put it to the test.

The deal was simple: lie completely still, stay quiet and keep your eyes closed until I had counted to 50. After that, they could get up again. But if they spoke, opened their eyes or moved, I had to start over at one.

In theory, it was therefore entirely possible to win.

I began counting fairly quickly. Then I gradually slowed down.

The higher the numbers got, the longer the pauses became. I yawned, lowered my voice and sounded increasingly tired.

We had never made any agreement about how fast I had to count.

The child lay there quietly with closed eyes, determined to prove that they were still awake. Usually, they fell asleep long before I reached 50.

Only once or twice did a child stay awake all the way. Then they were allowed to get up. A promise is a promise.

The trick worked because it removed the argument about whether they were tired. They were allowed to prove that they were right. My only job was to count—very slowly.

It became one of those small family tricks that we shared, and it worked surprisingly often.

But there is one important condition for parents: if the child is still awake at 50, you have to keep your promise. Even if they yawned through the last 20 numbers.

This English translation was prepared with AI from the author’s Swedish article. The original text was developed with AI assistance, and the featured illustration is AI-generated.