The secret to parenting...

So, Brant and I felt like we have stumbled upon THE secret of all secrets... I think we could retire rich off this one... the trick to getting the boys to sleep at night without a fuss or a spanking or an endless parade of drinks and potty breaks.... 

Flashlights.

I kid you not. We modified the idea from a friend. For 15 minutes each night the boys are allowed to play with flashlights, read, talk, whatever they want to do (staying on their beds.) When the timer goes off, if the flashlights don't go off and the talking doesn't completely stop, then they lose their flashlight time for the next night. 

It works! They LOVE it. I hear them tell their friends "We get to play with flashlights when we're supposed to be sleeping." They are totally quiet as soon as the timer beeps and only once or maybe twice have we had to suspend their flashlight time the next night. 

We've taken the same concept over to the tents they've been building all summer... they are allowed to build any type of contraption they want to sleep in (we do check to make sure it's decently safe) as long as they are totally quiet and go to sleep when the flashlight timer goes off. The night we had all 5 boys in one tent, we gave them 20 minutes of flashlight time.... then dead silence. Easiest slumber party we will probably preside over. :)