Oh, come on -- a little mental torture never hurt anyone!

My nine-year-old daughter once fell asleep late in the afternoon. We woke her up at bedtime -- "Come on, honey, it's time to go to bed." She was totally disoriented, and instead of heading for her room, she started for the front door. "Honey, what's the matter? Where are you going?"

"I need to go home," she said.

She snapped out of it in a minute, and we all had a good laugh. Just a cute family story -- wasn't it funny the time Little Woogums tried to go home after her nap.

Except that my husband can never let that kind of thing go. She fell asleep again another time -- same thing, late in the afternoon -- and my husband went to wake her up at bedtime. "Honey," he said quietly, "come on, wake up. It's time to go home."

"Wha?" she kind of mumbled, totally out of it -- just like last time. He actually got her to put her shoes and coat on, and they went out the door. Of course the other kids and I are practically wetting our pants by now.

They got all the way out the front gate, and then she started figuring out that something weird was going on. "Where are we going?"

My husband turned around and opened the gate again. "We're going home," he said, and led her back inside.

We've done this several times now -- "Wake up, honey, it's time to go home." She falls for it almost every time, at least for a couple of seconds. It never gets old. Yes, we're evil.