One evening last week, I told Veronica it was bedtime, after several warnings that it was imminent. Although she had promised to go to bed without fuss, naturally she instead threw a fit and started kicking the floor. Then she decided to play her game called "Family":

"No, I'm the mommy and you're the kid!" she shouted. "You go to bed and I stay up!"

I decided to play along.

"I'm the kid and you're the mommy? OK then, I'm heading upstairs and going to bed and get some sleep, and you can stay down here and figure out what the burning smell is coming from behind the fridge. And you'll have to pack your own lunch and take a shower before you go to bed. Tomorrow I'll go to school and play all day, and you...well, you can't drive yet, so you'll have to figure out SOME way of getting downtown, and it's my turn to be at the front desk today so you'll have to do that, and help out all the customers and tell them about corporations, limited liability companies, sole proprietorships..."

At this she gets up from the floor, walks over, picks up her teddy bear, heads to the foot of the stairs, and says, "I'm the kid and you're the mom, I'm going to bed now."

Exactly.