Sometimes when you read a book, one indelible anecdote strikes you just right and sears its way into your brain.
Years ago, I experienced this reading Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel. While I recall it being an excellent book with insights on to how to raise kids in an environment of forgiveness and mutual understanding, the one story that still regularly comes to my mind is that of a boy who wanted to sleep with a chair on his bed.
Yes, a chair. On his bed.

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6 ways to be a more consistent parentThe book describes a strong-willed child who, for whatever reason, felt that the presence of his desk chair on his bed would help him sleep at night. His father saw this as a ridiculous request and categorically refused. A battle ensued, as so often does in standoffs of the will between parents and children. Eventually the dad won. The chair remained on the floor, much to the son?s disappointment. Later, however, the dad confessed to the author of the book: ?I wish I had just let my son sleep with the chair. Really, what was the harm"? His son wasn?t in a waterbed or bunk bed, where the chair might fall off and do damage. Even if the chair fell on the kid, maybe he?d learn the lesson that snuggling with furniture isn?t the best idea. In the end...