My boy can always find something better to do than go to bed when he's tired. At seven years old, bedtime was just something he did without thinking about it. At seventeen, not so much. He reads, he plays on the computer, he talks to friends on the phone.

This is the boy who has to be reminded Every. Single. Night to turn out the light at the official ten p.m. school night lights-out. Every single night.

Last year he would get surly about the reminders, but I persisted despite his resistance, despite feeling just a little silly and anal about it, because I believe adequate sleep is essential for growing bodies - and lordy, is that boy growing!

This year he's perfectly co-operative, bless the boy, but he still never, ever manages it independently. This is not deliberate defiance, just a tendency - which he inherits from me - to lose track of time when involved in a project or when reading, and another tendency - which he gets from his father - to night-owlness. Still, I feel self-conscious some nights, sticking my head in the bedroom door and reminding this young man who towers over me by a good six inches, "Five minutes till lights-out!"

Some things, though, are worth doing, and sometimes, just often enough to keep me at it, I get some encouragement. Daniel's telling me about his conversation at school:

"So Joel was bragging about how he doesn't go to sleep before two in the morning, and I'm saying to him, 'You mean you like being so tired you can't think all day?"

What did Joel say to that? I wanted to know.

"Ah, Joel said it was totally not cool to go to bed so early. I told him it was totally not cool to fall asleep on your desk during math class and wake up with drool all over your face, like he did one day last week."

What did Joel say to that?

"Nothing, but everyone else laughed. But it makes no sense, mom. I'd rather be asleep at two in the morning in bed than two in the afternoon on my desk, you know?"

From time to time, your kids, they just make you feel good, you know?