GIVE!!! This bedtime crap that DJ's pulling of late is getting to the point of ridiculous!! Tonite it took almost 2 hours for him to STAY IN BED!!! His antics are getting out of hand! 5 times tonite he had to "pee" of which the first and the last he actually had to pee. Then he wants just one more hug and kiss...which is sweet, but he drags it out! Then the moment you leave the room he's calling out for you again. He's even getting sneaky! I was sitting watching TV and working on the lap top when I heard a small bang...I look over my shoulder and he's laying on the floor playing with a defunct web cam....and the moment I get up he's saying he has to pee....do you see now how frustrating this is?!?!?! Howie isn't usually around to help out, as he goes to bed rather early, but tonite he got to see the full DJ effect....and is just as unhappy about it as I am! I'm not sure what to do about it! One of my g/f's says her 3 y/o is just as full of antics as DJ is. When we lived with my parents DJ was in their room (it was HUGE) and never gave me grief! He went straight to bed and while he'd fool around on his bed, he typically didn't get out of bed. Since coming home, that's all gone to heck! *sigh* I'm almost to the end of my bed time rope! Any suggestions would be welcome!
Other than our bed time fiasco, the day went well! I had no plans so we kept it low-key and just hung around the house! It was a wee bit cooler in weather which was nice. I finally let the kids play with the sticker books and stickers my mom got them. Even SamSam was getting into it! Hers is Winnie the Pooh and DJ's is Cars (of course!) Then we made up a post card to send to her and took the Canada stickers she bought and decorated the desk in each kids' room. DJ got a kick out of it all!
After nap I set up the beach ball sprinkler and let the kids run wild! Like I said earlier, it was a bit cooler today, so the novelty wore off quicker....and then we just played and did bubbles. After dinner we took a family trip to Walmart (where else!?!?) to get some herring for Howie to pickle for fishing....blech! Then we came home and started the bed time fiasco!
Now, I'm relaxing to the hum of the air conditioner....watching mindless tv...blogging....and playing Farkle....what more could I ask for?
Til next time...ciao!
ideas from my daughter, the child therapist:
ReplyDelete1. Every time he gets up from bed, take him immediately back to bed with NO talking or eye contact. Just quietly take him back to bed (and the bathroom if he insists) but absolutely no talking or eye contact.
2. A sticker board: reward for each night he stays in bed. Or could be a different reward, what ever he is most fond of.
3. probably time to skip or greatly shorten his nap time. I know i know, its YOUR nap time too, but what can ya do?
4. As a last resort, put a child gate across his door so he feels safe cause he can see out, but cant leave the room. Let him cry it out (hard to do, but effective usually in a few nights. Some have found their kids asleep by the gate, but usually they just get up & go to bed)
Good luck :o)
1...is difficult to do with all his screaming...we don't wanna wake Sam who's right outside the bathroom....
ReplyDelete2....is a fabulous idea!!!!!
3....we're trying that today, thanks to this suggestion!!!
4....is something I thought of last nite, but we'll hold off and see if no napping is the way to go!
Thanks Fi!!!
I do agree with Fiona's approach to number 1 and number 2 and number 4. I do not agree with skipping naps at all. Kids his age NEED naps. I honestly do not buy it when parents say "he has out grown them". I have 12 kids everyday birth to 6 who STILL nap for atleast an hour and if they don't sleep they lay quietly and rest and typically fall asleep. Kids NEED the down time and television is NOT down time.
ReplyDeleteNumber 1 is a great idea. The supernanny approach and it will take only 2 to 7days to work if you use it correctly. Sam will survive and I bet start to just sleep through it. DJ will eventually get the hang of it.
Number 2 start with a tangiable goal. One night. If he does great on night one he should get an reward (ice cream out with mom, special book, etc) and then make it 2 nights and then 5 nights and so forth..but you need to make it a tangible goal that he sees immediatly.
Number 3 I don't agree with and I would not give up that down time. Sorry. I think its silly and sometimes skipping those naps makes evenings even harder. It may work once or twice or even for a week but its sure to back fire. Kids go through phases....this is one of them. He is testing the waters and when you allow the extra hugs and kisses and bathroom trips he wins..
Number 4 we did this with Breonna. It worked after about 3 weeks..it was awful. But it worked. Actually Number 1 worked the best!!!!