A new bedtime idea

My friends are so much cleverer than I am.  On Friday, I wrote about how much I hate bedtime.  I posted a link to that on Facebook this morning.  One friend explained that when her kids go to bed happy, they do not go to sleep right away, but if they are mad or upset, they pass right out!  So I started thinking that maybe perhaps making the children cry each night at bedtime might be really good for everyone.  I mean...it will be good for the kids, because they will fall asleep sooner, thus giving them the rest they really need, so that they are less cranky the next day.  And it will be good for Kris and I, because our voices will no longer be hoarse from yelling at them to get back in bed, and it will allow us to spend more quality time together without the constant interruption of a child with some bizarre excuse as to why they just NEED to get up.

So I was pondering this, and then another friend, also much more clever/cleverer (Shawn Spencer would say "I've heard it both ways.") commented "So the poem about the woman who lives in a shoe is really starting to make sense now..."  Of course, I only remembered the first two lines, so I had to look it up...and I am convinced now that not much has changed since this was written in 1794.  Check it out:

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

C'mon people!  217 years ago it was a good way to keep the children in line at bedtime.  Perhaps we should go back to this old nursery rhyme.  I think this is some sound advice, with regards to a bedtime routine.  What do you think?  Who's with me?  Likely NOT Super Nanny or Social Services.