You tell them it's time to turn off the video games and do their homework, and there is a battle. You ask them to take a bath, brush their teeth, and put on their PJs—another struggle. Finally, you get them into bed and are about to turn off the light when they ask for a story. A bedtime ritual, it's impossible to deny such a request from a child as they turn in for the night.

However, what should function as a sleep aid sometimes backfires, leaving the little gremlins wide-eyed and wanting more. Manga artist Pepuri (@pepuritan) is all too familiar with this problem in her everyday struggles to get her two young children into bed at a reasonable hour. She used to read numerous picture books to her youngins, but the entertaining illustrations riled them up. As she illustrated in a recent post, she had a great idea to fix this common problem. Or so she thought.

As you can tell from her tortured expression, there is just no winning.

Pepuri wrote this message to her readers:

As some readers suggested, it seems the lack of pictures likely stimulated her daughter's imagination. Entirely the opposite effect of what she wanted. Back to the drawing board.

If you liked this manga, Pepuri posts regularly on her Twitter account and Instagram. Check them out.