Please. Just. Stop.

Right now, a certain 2-year-old is not sleepy. She does not care that it's midnight, and she wants out of her room. (That is currently prevented by a baby gate, for her own safety.) For the past couple of hours since I put her to bed, she has done a mix of lying down and wiggling (she puts herself to sleep with what we affectionately refer to as her "booty dance"), playing with her toys, singing to herself, and asking her sister if she's ok (she is — in fact, she's asleep).

But Maya knows that I am still up, and the night has turned into a battle of wills. Her strategy is to call for me in various irritating and whiny tones, over and over, louder and louder. Of course, anytime I bite and tell her it's time to go to sleep, she only gets louder. I could give in and go get her and let her watch Bubble Guppies while she does the booty dance in here with me, but I don't want to reward her strategy with the outcome she's seeking. The behaviors we acknowledge will continue, and the behaviors we ignore will go away, right?

RIGHT?

Ok, moms and dads, help me out here. What do you do when your kid doesn't want to sleep and implements the car-alarm approach so you can't sleep either? Do I ignore it? Do I shut her door to let her know it's not working? Do I go in and read a book or sing a song, but make her stay in the room? Do I let her come out for a little while, till she's more tired?

What works?