Bedtime Battles

LOL............. SOUNDS LIKE FUN AT YOUR HOUSE!!!

i put my girls down at 830pm week nights but on weekends it doesnt matter.everyone at the sametime, no favorites at my house. and last night my oldest came in the room 4 times wanting someone to lay with her. bad dreams i think

how old are your children Greg?

ukok, what time do you put your children to bed? I have to send my two at the same time, as there's only 12 months between them in age, and the youngest gets very upset if the oldest stays up later. BUT, my eldest is hardly ever ready for bed when I send them up, but my youngest needs a lot more sleep.

I send them to bed at 8:00. Well, they go to get ready at 7:30 and have to have pray and everything by 8:00, but it often goes later than that. At weekends they're allowed to stay up later, I try for 8:30 but it's usually closer to 9:00 or even 9:30. Oh, they're 7 and 8 years old.

Bedtimes are a real battle. My 8 year old is constantly up and down stairs with some excuse or other, and many nights he's still awake when I go to bed. It's 9:30 right now, and he's still wide awake and has been down twice so far. grrrrrrrr, kids!!! lol

I was considering putting leather straps on the kids bed, na dstrap them in at night so they stay in bed...

Bill Cosby is so right-
They can not go to sleep unless they have had a good beating.

I really sympathise [hug]ukok[/hug]

My 8 year old has just gone to sleep I think!!! I daren't go and check incase I disturb him!!

I know there was a thread going about this before the crash, but can't remember if you'd tried the treat bribe to get your son to stay in bed? I know that most things I've tried have only lasted a few nights before the novelty wears off.

You should get a stress ball or something, you're going to need your hair for when your daughter's a teenager LOL

I so understand what you are going through, but it must be really tough having to cope with that on your own. I know there are times when my kids come down and I want to tell them that they can sit and watch t.v. with me for a while, but I know that's not the right thing to do.


A lot of the time they'll walk right past me (I spend most evenings sitting at the computer which is next to the kitchen table....our downstairs is all open-plan so I can watch t.v. from here too!!!) My hubby sits in his study, which is in the next room to me, and the kids walk past me to talk to daddy. It makes me so mad, especially as he's usually had a busy day at work and I know he needs his space much more than I do, as I don't go out to work. But, on the other hand I get upset that they ignore me, and I know that a lot of the time they just want a few more minutes with daddy!!

Last night my daughter woke up as I was going to bed. She came into my bedroom and asked to sleep with me until my hubby came to bed (which is usually 1/2 an hour to an hour later than me) and I was so tempted to let her, but I made her go back to her own bed, and she was still awake an hour later when hubby came to bed!! I wish now I'd let her stay with me, I never seem to do the right thing LOL

All this talk of sleep is getting to me....I'm off to bed in a mo. I hope you have an undisturbed night's sleep, and I'm sure our kids will grow out of this annoying habit eventually!!!

Goodnight

My youngest goes to bed at 9pm and my oldest at 10. I seem to have more trouble with teh older one though. I've never really had a hard time getting mine to go to bed though.

I used to send the younger kids to bed at 8:30 and my oldest at 9:30. As it is now, if they get up they can stay up. If they don't get up when called, bed time is reintroduced. Funny how quickly they can go to sleep when I start getting them up at 6:30 instead of 7:30 or 8.

Many times we don't even get home from church or activities till 9 so bedtimes are hard to keep, but up at 7:30 is the rule, and no sleeping in your breakfast!!!

LOL.. high school?? I thought you were talking about toddlers. I am with Beckijhn, if they can get up, they can stay up. I encouraged 10 pm for high schoolers and middle school. Kindergarten through 6th was 9 pm.
When each were about three, they were always coming into our room to try to sleep with us. I kept a pillow and sleeping bag on the floor by my side of the bed and they could stay there if they wanted. There isn't enough room for 3 in our bed.

Here's an idea--from someone who had an extremely early bedtime as a child. (I was having to go to bed at 8:30 up until I was 15 years old.) Make them go to their room, but dont' necessarily force them to go to sleep. Let them know that once they go in for the night, they are not allowed to leave the room (except obviously for a bathroom break or something--but give them a glass of ice water, so there won't be any water fits). Then they can read or play or whatever. I've seen several parents do this, and it seems to work wonders. They NEVER have battles with their children about going to bed anymore. Just a suggestion I thought I'd share!

That's a good one Cammie. I've done that with my kids. Once I put them in bed they usually stay there and fall right asleep, but there are occasional nights when they can't seem to settle themselves down. So I let them keep the light on and they may look at books or play with toys quietly. But they are not to leave the room. They really enjoy the quiet time alone, and they just turn out the light themselves and go to sleep when they're ready--usually less than 30 minutes later.

I have a five year old that hasn't slept in years. Then I have one a year and a half old that goes to bed a 8;30 and sleeps all night. I have tried it all with my five year old and still don't know what to do. She gets up and says, " I got you a question. She says it just like that. Then she says I Love You.'' Then we start from square one again.

you all crack me up.............. use rope!!!

ukok said:

Oh, Greg, you are just so funny..(.the thought had crossed my mind though...)

Click to expand...

Ummm...maybe I missed it but do any of you see your child's lack of compliance as rebellion?

It seems like the major method so far is either ignore it or threaten. Do any of you actually do anything to train your child to obey you? Obviously you cannot make them go to sleep but you can most certainly teach them that when it's bed time they must close their eyes, be quiet, and try to go to sleep.

My sister was having this exact same problem with her three year old. She would put him down for bed at 8 p.m. and he was still awake and running all over the house at 2 a.m. I told her she needed to be firm and tell her son that if he got out of bed, except to use the bathroom, then he would get a spanking and then, if necessary, follow through. Of course she disregarded my advice, all the while all three of my children are sound asleep by 9 p.m., the youngest, who is 20 months old, by 8:15 p.m. Anyway, her son would constantly get up and ask for a drink, or say he couldn't find a sock or whatever he could think of to stay up. Basically, he controlled his own bedtime. Well, one day she decided she had had enough. She had him use the bathroom, gave him a sip of a drink, and read him two stories. Then, she put him in bed with a warning that if he got up he would get a spanking. Of course, he got up. It wasn't anything important. I think it was the "sock" thing again. So, she spanked him and put him back to bed. Well, he got up again. So, she spanked him again. He got the idea. He didn't get up again and it was the first night in a year that my sister and her husband weren't fighting with him until the wee hours of the morning trying to get him to go to sleep. This process continued for about three days and by the fourth day, when it was his bedtime, she would take him to bed, read him two stories and tell him to go to sleep. He hasn't gotten out of bed when he wasn't supposed to since then.

One important thing that I still have to learn is that children often need a period of time to calm down before bed. I play with my kids alot and I used to get frustrated because they were all keyed up at bed time, even though it was my own fault. I had to learn to knock that off about ½ hour before bed time so they could calm down.

God bless