Parenting With Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility

problem. Phrases like “We have to leave the house,” “You’re making us
leave,” or “Look what you’re making us do” also send the wrong
message.
We leave the house for one reason only: We want to get a good night’s
sleep. Say something like this: “Honey, we need a good night’s sleep, and
we might have to leave home tonight to do that. We might want to do this
a lot of other nights because it’s really good for Daddy and me to get a
good night’s sleep. Sometimes we sleep better when we’re away from
you.”
Many kids who get up in the middle of the night are dependent on their
parents. Sometimes the only way to cure this dependence is to not be
there for them. This may seem like an extreme, complicated, and
expensive solution, but if you’re a parent who has not had a decent
night’s sleep for months or years, this approach is well worth the effort
and cost. You can even do it for free if friends with a similar problem
want to trade houses for a night. Kids are reluctant to bug “strange
parents”; they don’t know which buttons to push.