This weekend the issue of lack of sleep made my oldest child more teary and irritable than my three year old!
Just at that time they are often looking and even acting quite adult, an event can send them back nearly a decade in behavior and ability to cope with even the simplest of life's demands! My husband (who does overnight shifts twice a week) and I (who has slept throught the night a no more than a dozen times since her infancy) tend to handle lack of sleep reasonably gracefully. This particular apple rolled far from the tree...
How do you enforce reasonable bedtime/sleep habits when their life is demanding they participate in school/sports and social events from dawn till dark?