My son has started pulling out these insane arguments about why he shouldn't go to bed. Last night it was "but Dad, my pillow is lonely and needs a friend." I know I shouldn't laugh but this kid is actually convincing. How are other parents handling this without losing their minds? He's gonna be a prosecutor or something.
The lawyer comparison is spot on. My kid negotiated his way into staying up 15 minutes later by agreeing to get ready faster the next morning. I was annoyed but also kind of proud of his deal-making skills.
The bedtime negotiations are real. What helped us was giving him like 2 choices but we pick both. So "do you want to read 2 books or 2 stories" instead of him arguing for 5 books. Feels like he's winning but you're still in control.
Mine does the same thing at 4.5 and honestly it's kind of impressive how logical he gets. Last week he tried to tell me that if he went to bed earlier he'd wake up earlier which meant more playtime. Had to actually think about how to counter that argument.
Wait until he starts citing things he learned at school. My 4yo literally told me that his brain needs sleep to make memories and looked at me like I was stupid for not knowing this already. He was right but also infuriating.
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This phase passes but man is it exhausting. Bedtime went from 20 minutes to an hour at our house. We eventually had to stop engaging and just get boring about it. No more debating, just "I love you, time for bed" on repeat.