I loathe the hours of 4 pm to 8 pm. They are the worst hours of any day. Around 4 is when I'm usually trying to get dinner started, or at least that's when the fussiness starts. Then it's making dinner, then getting through dinner, cleaning up from dinner, but the worst is what comes next--bedtime.
Bedtime has become such an ordeal in our house. I don't really know why. We've established a routine since the children were very small. We've always stuck to that routine, except for when the occasional change in schedule warrants a change in bedtime routine also. The children know that after dinner they follow their bedtime chart and get ready for bed. We read books, say prayers, and have songs that we sing. Then it's a goodnight kiss and hug and we leave the room.
Yet every night it's the same struggle. After we leave, we have different visitors come out at least three times, if not more. The excuses are all the same: thirsty, bathroom, fix my blanket, more hugs and kisses, etc. When they finally do go to sleep, I'm so exhausted by the whole ordeal that anything I was planning on doing gets pushed aside and I waste away the rest of the evening. Not to mention that their "bedtime" is supposed to be no later than 7:30, but it's usually 8:30/9:00 by the time we stop seeing them make appearances.
Some days I think that they will never learn to just go to bed and that sleep is a wonderful thing. I wish they would learn that. I could certainly use more of that sleep! I just don't understand why it evolves into a battle every single night. Why couldn't they resist only once in a while instead of every single night? I realize it gets a little better as they get older, for the fact that Westley doesn't usually put up much of a fight anymore, but even sometimes (like tonight) he still has a rough episode or two, and that's enough to wipe me out!
4 comments:
you gotta love the excuses they give just to stay up a few more minutes. :)
I am so sorry. It is a rough time. We struggle with it as well. Sometimes we have found that we have to switch kids and bedrooms to make it work. Just recently, we moved Walter and Josef in together and Brooke and Trent now share a room. The going to bed is much better.
It just reminds me that parenting is not a quick and easy process. Everything takes time.
I'm struggling with bedtime right now also. Grace just yesterday fought me for an hour and twenty minutes (and she'd had no nap thanks to 1-4 church). She was so tired I just don't understand her. I think I'm going to try what I saw on Supernanny last night. Mom or dad sits in the room somewhere where the kid can see you and if they get up, you simply put them back, no words, give them no attention, just back to bed. Once I started that last night, it was only 15-20 minutes. Good luck, if this works, I'll let you know. The idea is within a few days, you can move your chair to the doorway and eventually to the hall and then not have to do it at all anymore.
It's actually gotten better since we moved back to our house. Of course, now, we just tell them they have one chance to go to the bathroom and get a drink before it's lights out and we lock the door. Of course I unlock it after they're sound asleep in case they do need to get up during the night. We were doing this before, and after a few weeks, you don't even need to lock the door, just make them think it's locked, and they don't get up. Mostly the problem has been Travis, who doesn't use the toilet yet, and Caleb, who would get up half a dozen times. Now he's not, so I know that before, he didn't really need to, it was just an excuse to stay up. Of course, he's also stopped napping, so maybe that helps him go to sleep faster at night.
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