Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take. I sometimes pray that prayer before I go to sleep. My parents taught it to me as a child. It’s a nice prayer. I’ve been trying to teach it to my own daughters but it’s been more difficult than it should be.

Perhaps thinking them incapable of producing plenty of noise on their own, different people have given them stuffed animals that talk – indeed,…