This is actually old news, but one night I was given the kid-equivalent of a tongue lashing for committing what has become something of a cardinal sin.

Okay, so Andrew didn’t put the boots to me and cause me to tear up from a withering verbal assault, but he did adorn the house with his special breed of mannish wailing when I put him to sleep one night and turned on his mobile.

Now understand that his mobile has long had its moveable features removed, and given that he’s so comfortable in his “big bed”, the mobile is nothing more than a music player sitting on a chair in one corner of his room. And for some time, he seemed to enjoy requesting the “red” music before eventually falling asleep.

But not on that one night, and boy have I learned my lesson since. Apparently I had misstepped by turning on his music – he wanted no part of it.

And ever since, when asked, he’s adamant that he does not want the music to play when he lays his head on his pillow at night.

Okay, so I could accept that without much in the way of a teary eye. Certainly it was nothing more than a preference.

But somewhere along the line he also decided that he no longer wanted any of his daily comforts to accompany him to sleepy land. Not his various cars, not his teddy bears. On some nights they are even banished from taking up residence beside his bed, on the floor.

Which makes me wonder – what is he doing to fall asleep?

Certainly it’s great that he falls asleep every night with no fuss, but his refusal to do so with any childish aid of any sort? Admirable, but again, a little bittersweet. What will be the next youthful indulgence to get the axe in this little man’s quest to become something more?