We are now almost 2 1/2 years into this parenting thing. It is a pretty amazing thing, raising a toddler. There are a lot of awesome days, watching him learn and explore his surroundings. The sentences that are coming out of his mouth now are pretty wild. He is funny, has a good amount of potty humor, and is all around a cool kid (at least I think so).

That is most days.

Other days he kicks our ass like Rocky versus Ivan Drago! We think we have it all figured out and then bam, he knocks us out.

It’s not the tantrum; that’s expected. It’s the sleep or should I say lack thereof. I think it has been a solid 30 plus months since my wife has slept through the night. She bravely handles most of this.

It’s not just the lack of sleep but the instability. He will go two weeks sleeping great. My wife and I think we finally have it figured out. We are over the hump. The kid is gonna make it. He really is going to start sleeping through the night.

Then, he reverts. No more good sleep habits. He wants to play. Or worse, scream. Scream through the night. Not let us calm him down. Basically causing panic and disarray throughout the night.

For the first 1 1/2 years, this ebb and flow of sleep would get to us. We would rejoice when he slept and despair when he didn’t. Would this be a permanent state? What can we do? What should we do?

Eventually, we figured it out. He is a kid. Kids change daily, and we as parents have to understand that. No need to despair. Just stay strong, and growth and stability will come once again.

So you may wonder, what does this have to do with the stock market?

Well, everything. As the market crashes (which many think will happen soon), don’t despair. Don’t panic. Don’t sell all of your assets. Sit tight and realize that this too shall pass much like it has in the past.

The market can be like a fickle, mercurial toddler happy one day and not the next.

Past performance, good or bad, does not accurately predict future performance. The market may be cozy now, but a day will come where she is no longer sleeping.

At that moment of panic, just remember the story of the toddler and the parents with no sleep. It is a sad story, but one that will end with a happy ending, presumably when he is 15, and we can’t get him out of bed at all. Screaming at him that it is time to go.

So don’t panic, the kid will sleep soon. And the market will recover even sooner.

“Dads Dollars Debts” is a cardiologist who blogs at his self-titled site, Dads Dollars Debts.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com