Do you dread bedtime? Does your child call
to you after you have already read 3 stories
plus 2 and checked for monsters and lined
up the stuffed animals and made sure that
the door was ajar in exactly the correct
position to your child's specifications?
Does your child get out of bed over and
over until you are both exhausted and
your child is crying?
Does your child demand that you lie
down with her/him? And stay there until
your child falls asleep? Do you find
yourself drifting off and waking up
two hours later in your child's bed?
Or worse, when you try to sneak out,
does your child wake up and demand that
you return?
Or do you wake up in your own bed
and notice the extra little body
sleeping peaceful beside you?
If any of this sounds familiar then
you are probably waking up exhausted
in the morning, dragging yourself
through your day and dreading this
evening when it all starts again.
How would you like to be able to
tuck your child into bed with a
night time kiss and have the rest
of the night for you?
And, how would you like to wake
up feeling rested and refreshed
the next morning?
And how would you like to have
enough energy to make it through
your day without needing a nap?
And look forward to bedtime with your
child?
Follow these instructions:
Today:
Remove the TV's from your child's bedroom.
Buy a portable timer.
Buy or make a special pillow or stuffed toy-
Tonight:
Before dinner, tell your chid that there will
be a new bedtime plan. Give them the pillow or
stuffed animal and tell them that this is their
very own Magical Protection. It keeps monsters
out of kids rooms and helps kids get comfy and
fall alseep very fast.
10 minutes before bedtime:
Tell you child they get to choose 2 to 3 stories.
Their choice. But no more. After you read each
story repeat
"ok that was number_ story
we have _ left."
Tuck your child in. Tell
your child that you have
a timer and are going to
set the timer to go off in 5 minutes.
At that time you are going to return
and make sure that the Magical Protector
is doing his/her job.
When you go back, reasure your child
that s/he is safe and tell them you
will be back again in 6 minutes.
Keep going back and start spacing out
the checking.
If your child gets out of bed, calmly
walk him/her back to bed and repeat
from the beginning.
If your child ends up in your bed
same drill ( I know your are tired! )
Do it anyway.
Let me know how fast you have changed
your child's bedtime routine.
Average is 3 days....
If you found this article helpful check out
my book: Taking Back Your Parenting Powers.
click on this link to read about it:
www.parentingpowers.com/takebacksystemnew.htm
Also, feel free to forward this article to
friends and family who are struggling with
bedtime issues.
Best Wishes for a Peaceful Home...
Your Parent Coach,
Susan