Tired Mom Offers Kids Money To Go To Sleep, Laughter At What Happens Next

Newsweek

09-06-2025

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
A tired mom resorted to desperate measures at bedtime in a bid to her kids off to sleep, but it didn't have the desired effect.
Parenting can be exhausting, not least when it comes to bedtime. Last year, a survey of over 1,500 parents conducted by the mattress retailer Sleepopolis found 71.91 per cent of respondents got less than 7 hours of sleep 3 nights a week or more. Nicole Bell from Fort Myers, Florida, is one of those parents.
In many ways her life sounds like the kind most would dream of. "My husband and I have known each other since we were 6 as neighbors and I was and still am his sister's best friend," Bell told Newsweek. "We started dating when we were 16, and now we have 3 little girls, aged 7, 4, and 2 and a 13 year old dog."
Nicole Bell offered her daughters money to go to sleep.
Nicole Bell offered her daughters money to go to sleep.
TikTok/thataverageparent
However, as is often the case with young children, bedtime can occasionally turn into a nightmare. In Bell's case, the main culprit is their middle child. "The oldest is a decent sleeper, the youngest actually has been our best sleeper," Bell. "The 4 year old takes a solid hour and a half to fall asleep then wakes up at 3am to crawl into our bed."
Matters came to a head one night recently. Bell's two eldest daughters, who share a room, were in bed but still very much awake.
So, in moment captured on a nearby baby cam and later shared to TikTok under the handle @thataverageparent, Bell decided to up the ante. "Whoever's asleep first gets a dollar in the morning," Bell states as she leaves the room, hoping against all hope that it has the desired effect. But it's the hope that kills you.
"At this point my husband had gone out for a run after putting the 2 year old to bed and I just wanted to get to bed myself so I was pulling out all the tricks," Bell said. "I went in, offered the dollar, then took a quick shower and came back to check on them."
She hoped to return to find them both fast asleep. However, as the clip posted online shows, that wasn't the case. "The 7 year old was fast asleep, as I expected, but the 4 year old- not so much," Bell said.
Instead her 4-year-old was wide awake and ready to explain why that was the case. "I can't sleep because the ninjas got my sleeping power," Bell's daughter can be heard saying on the clip. "So can you just give me a dollar in the morning?"
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As baffling as her reasoning may have been to the casual viewer, Bell knew exactly what her daughter was referring to. "Her favorite show currently is PJ Masks, which has a villain called the Night Ninja and his sidekicks are Ninjalinos which is where her comeback originated from," she said.
Bell said this is only the second time she had tried bribing her kids to go to sleep. "I honestly wasn't expecting the 4 year old to fall asleep, but I hoped she would," Bell said. "Really the goal was to give the oldest motivation to stop talking, because once she actually tries to fall asleep, she is out fast and then I would only have one awake kid left."
Bell shared the footage to TikTok because her daughter's response made her laugh and she figured others would find it amusing too. "She's such a big goofball with a huge imagination that that response didn't even phase me as out of the ordinary," Bell said.
The clip appears to have had the desired effect, with over 400,000 views and counting since being shared earlier this month. "I hope people just see it for what it is, a mom trying to make it until the end of the day, and not look too deep into it," Bell said. "I hope parents know that whatever they are doing to get by, however many real or metaphorical dollars they need to bribe kids with, they are doing a great job!"