bobn@bmcg.UUCP (Bob Nebert) (09/19/85)
I've been reading this discussion on bedtimes with concern. I have one question. How can you justify to a 2.5 year old that he has to go to bed at 8:00 or 8:15 when his bigger sister, whom he plays with all day, gets to stay up for one more hour. In his eyes he is being punished I would think. I put him down, cover him up, ask him if he had a good day, did he have fun, etc. Generally he wanders down the hall into the living room and the exercise starts all over again. Usually I end up saying something like " get up again and its spanking time" It ruins the good mood everytime and I feel bad about it. The sister, age 4.5, sleeps on the couch. She has always slept on the couch. For some reason she has a fear of her bedroom. If anybody has any advice on how to make her feel at home in her room I would listen with all three ears. After she falls asleep, about 9:30 or so, the baby wakes up. She is 9 months. I work all day and a parttime job on Sunday(from 11:30 to 9:30) So after working my fulltime job, driving to the babysitters, get the kids home, scrape up some dinner, let them play outside for a while (peer contact), wash them, and get them mindful of bedtime I dont have to much patience left.
jmc@riccb.UUCP (Jeff McQuinn ) (09/23/85)
> > The sister, age 4.5, sleeps on the couch. She has always slept > on the couch. For some reason she has a fear of her bedroom. > If anybody has any advice on how to make her feel at home in > her room I would listen with all three ears. > I can really sympatize with you. We had the same problem with our oldest (now 7) in that he refused to sleep in his own bed. We solved it by allowing him to go to sleep in his favored spot (our bed) then moving him to his own bed after he fell asleep. He'd get up later and come back in our bed at first, but after he was asleep we'd just move him back. After a while he stopped getting up at night to move in with us and we started making him start out in his own bed. The hardest part was getting him to go to sleep without me being in the room (which was the final crutch). Of course if you have patience she will finally outgrow the fear on her own. A lot of it is a delay tactic (kids just love to delay bedtime unless they are really exhausted). Jeff McQuinn just VAXing around
ric@fluke.UUCP (Ric Harris) (09/24/85)
> I've been reading this discussion on bedtimes with concern. I have > one question. How can you justify to a 2.5 year old that he has > to go to bed at 8:00 or 8:15 when his bigger sister, whom he plays > with all day, gets to stay up for one more hour. In his eyes he > is being punished I would think.... May I recommend a book titled "Making Kids Mind Without Losing Yours", by Dr. Kevin Leman. Ric Harris