Children’s sleep (or lack of it) has always been one of the great themes and mysteries of parenthood. If the day has been long and exhausting and you’re looking forward to the half hour between the moment the children finally sleep and your own slipping into a coma, it can drive you to despair when the offspring willfully thwart these plans.
Putting the children to bed is probably the final enemy of all parents, so it’s really not surprising what happened recently in Essenbach, not far from Landshut. Strictly speaking, it’s surprising that you don’t hear or read things like this much more often: A 14-year-old should go to bed there, according to the police report, at just before nine o’clock in the evening. The Filius was probably not in the mood and started to riot a little. Because the parents didn’t know what to do, they called the police. The officials came to support and “solved the problem with them.”
Unfortunately, what that looked like in detail is not known. Perhaps the police officers brushed the boy’s teeth with the help of an hourglass and a toothbrush rhyme. Then they possibly put him in Paw Patrol pajamas. For the lucky ones who don’t know them, that’s six dogs out on the prowl. To fall asleep another chapter from “Why, why, why? The police”.
This operation raises the question of how the police could improve the everyday life of troubled parents. Both sides benefit from it. The parents would have enforcement professionals at their side and the police could be involved in raising the later good citizens, which in turn would make their work easier in the future. Crime scene playground, for example: If Greta hits Lennart with a shovel, why not just call the police? According to the Bavarian police website, one of their tasks is to investigate criminal offenses and to help citizens “secure their claims”. Greta, the criminal, will certainly never again interfere with Lennart’s right to a sand-free scalp after the police intervened.
But maybe everything was completely different. You can’t just take the perspective of the powerful. The police officers from Landshut may have arranged things completely differently – and the parents took action. Shortly before nine o’clock is a bit early for a 14-year-old to go to bed.