Sandra Dodd

Two things tangled a bit.

"Both my kids actively fight sleep.  Makes doing things during the day a nightmare."

I want to point out that in such a short group of words the author wrote "fight" and "nightmare."
If it's that negative, the family should find some bedtimes, and stop having an opportunity for anyone to "fight" anything or to cause a nightmare for anyone.

___________________

Earlier, in the chat, different people:

Someone, of a young boy:
Sometimes he gets glued to a show, but is obviously building up a lot of physical tension from sitting still for so long.

Me: 
 Wrong.  "Glued to" is negative. If he were "glued to" a book I'm guessing you'd be happier.
Not so "obviously" about the physical tension. It's not fair.

The someone: I wasn't trying to imply a positive or negative.

Sandra Dodd: The best reveals of negavitity come when someone wasn't trying to imply a positive or negative. 

Daniel: 
I just meant that he will watch a show for an extended period of time, and then start to randomly scream or flop around.
Someone's spouse:
 I think what [someone] means about obviously building up physical tension is that [the child] will like ball his hands into fists or growl or...yeah

Sandra Dodd: I know what you mean, and I also see what you wrote.

A third party:  Glued is passive, invested is active.

Sandra Dodd: You thought, AND wrote AND posted "glued to," which has an unquestionably negative connotation.
Sandra Dodd: It's good for you to know it.

(There was more, among and after, but it's not important.)

IF a family's sleep is being disturbed so that they're not getting along when they ARE awake, that is a problem.
Staying up for a good reason makes sense.  Staying up just to stay up does NOT make sense.

If the mom is tired and the kids are "fighting sleep," she should say "I need to sleep, so you need to sleep," and withdraw the kind "you can stay up" card for that evening.  Maybe the next night, IF they have something quiet they can do, through which others can totally and safely and quietly sleep.  NOT if they aren't able to be quiet enough for other people to sleep.

Life should not be a nightmare.

Sandra