Sign up for a free e-letter from Wendy's company Life Media

Going to Sleep – June 19, 2011 Novelist Adam Mansbach’s hugely hyped, barely just published new book Go the F**k to Sleep is supposedly a funny way to validate the frustration we have all felt during difficult parenting times. I haven’t read it, but I’ve watched somebody reading it online. It’s a product of brilliant marketing, is billed as a subversive parody of a children’s book, and supposedly addresses a “problem” that “everyone” experiences: a toddler who won’t go to sleep when told. Well, no. If the usual “bedtime rituals” aren’t working, frustration and fantasies of swearing and yelling could be replaced by rethinking why the kid has to have a bedtime and the accompanying rituals in the first place. Kids don’t need an adult to tell them when they’re tired. I suppose they do need an adult to explain why they should make their annoying little selves scarce and leave the adults to themselves. And, no again: I don’t think that I need to lighten up and get a sense of humor. If somebody wrote a book telling a disenfranchised adult to “Go the F**k ___” would we be comfortable laughing at it? Or would we be jumping up and down demanding that person’s rights? And yes, I think all parents have memories of being exhausted. I certainly do; it goes with the territory. However, I eventually discovered that when I began to respect my daughters and stopped thinking that they had to go to bed on my schedule, I was more accepting of their needs and wants, and life became less exhausting and more enjoyable. And now, almost forty years later, I’ve caught up on my sleep. Posted: 2011/06/19 6:05 PM Tweet