"I have heard it said, and now have found, that strong structure, and ritual for that matter, not only helps but actually creates discipline," Crawford wrote. "If bedtime always occurs at eight o'clock, without all of the waffling and bargaining I know goes on in many American homes, then children will come to accept it as a given and not create a stink every night when it's time to hit the hay. In our house, we'd disintegrated into the habit of announcing bedtime about twenty minutes before our target time, because a long negotiation had become inevitable. If I forgot to make the announcement, the girls got less sleep. That's not right." She said she had to work on not giving in to bargaining in all areas. "[Her daughters] are so happy and lovely when I relent ... unfortunately, this led us to a point where they did not really hear what I said the first time, knowing that there was a good chance I'd crumble."
