Why Are You Still Awake?

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This post is not so much advice for getting your kid to go to bed, because, really I don’t know if I even qualify.  It’s more just an “I feel ya’…” and “You got this, parents” kinda post. My kids go to bed pretty well in phases. Then we’re back in a hard phase and we have to figure it out again.

It’s bedtime. We give the 5-minute warning, the list of things that will lead to bedtime, we follow the routine. It all goes so smoothly. I think, “Wow, this might be one of those good nights where he just goes to bed!”

“Boots (books), teeth, potty, night-night,” he says, happily, going over what is about to happen on his little fingers. Task 1 done. “Teeth, potty, night-night!” One by one we knock out the list. He runs to his room with his sippy cup (proactive-no asking for drinks) and lays in his bed. “Night-Night, Momma!”

This is How They Get You!

Yasssss…. He went to bed. The false sense of relief waves over you. But any experienced parent knows that this is all a deceptive game. They wait for you to let your guard down, to get settled in… relaxed. AFTER you have thoroughly combed through the Netflix menu and pushed play, THAT is when it happens. THAT is when your child’s internal organs all simultaneously freak out and need immediate attention. Hunger strikes, he must pee (again), then sit for 10 minutes and realize he needs to poop. Memories strike up that we had talked about the possibility of going to the park and he realizes HE DIDN’T GO TO THE PARK TODAY! He needs his shirt off. He gets more creative every night.

Seriously, why are you still awake?!…

Why do toddlers not realize that bedtime is the best? I pretty much count down the hours before I get to go back to bed… starting the moment I get out of it!

One time it was the snack issue. We had already told him that dinner was all he was getting and we were not going to eat a snack for bedtime. TEARS. All the tears. Then screaming. “I‘Ant ‘nack!…”

After a million times, calmly, saying no snack, it’s time for night-night, then a few times, not so calmly… All the sudden it’s “I’ANT ‘DONAL’S!…” I am not sure what made him think that we were all going to get out of bed in the middle of the night, pack up and go to McDonald’s but he was confident enough in the request that he stopped crying to ask. Even with me as a mom, that has NEVER happened. Surprising as that is, we have never gotten the kids out of bed for a McDonald’s trip… Now before the kids were around, I will admit midnight Mickey D trips were not unusual!

Another time. He cried because he didn’t have his shoes on. That’s it. Just couldn’t go to bed because he didn’t have shoes on. Of course, I wasn’t starting that nonsense… We’re not wearing shoes to bed.

I don’t really know how to fix it really, because we all know different things can cause a child to start this habit again, but there are some things that work for us most of the time. Some are the common things I’ve seen before, some we got creative with. But like I said before, we will have bedtime down, then we have to start over. Sometimes they work sometimes they don’t. But bedtime is much more peaceful after we started trying these things. Some of them we have been doing since he was a baby and got out of the habit. Once we started again, his bedtimes got much better again.

• We try to make bedtime pleasant.
  This seems pretty obvious, but I feel like sometimes we just are so concerned with getting our kids to bed on time that it is just a task. Sometimes this is my issue. I try to make sure toys are cleaned up and we’re sitting quietly together WELL before bedtime. I noticed that when I let him play right up to bedtime, he acted like it was a punishment. Now he has to stop playing.
• We use a routine.
  You have definitely heard this suggestion as it is pretty much the top piece of advice anytime you look up how to get your kids to sleep.
• Lists
  We started making lists with Theron. Even with a routine, he would fight it when we reached the part of the routine that was laying down in bed. Now we list out each activity of the bedtime routine on our fingers (like in my story). Even if we need to change it up for whatever reason, having him say it in the list seems to give him peace of mind.
• Preemptively fulfill his requests
  Anything that I really don’t see a reason why he shouldn’t be able to have before bed or do, we take care of before bed. Things like wearing shoes, or wanting to go to McDonald’s that we are absolutely not doing? I don’t know. I am open to suggestions.
• Getting them calm and relaxed
  This can be with a backrub or use an oil diffuser with kid-safe essential oils. When our oldest was a baby we discovered a brand, called Wink Naturals, that makes different products for babies and children. Their chest rub became a nightly routine for us and WOW. At first the price turned me off, but it lasts a really long time and it really makes a difference. I was also pretty desperate at that point to get my teething baby some peace (and me). After a couple of weeks using it, he would start to get heavy eyes just from us rubbing it on. Now we use with our little one as well.

It became a really sweet time for us. Just quiet time, getting peaceful. This is usually when we pray for them as well. 

Good Luck!

It’s a short list and probably not much that’s new, but as I said, this is more to encourage others and remind you that you are doing great! It is a struggle that EVERY parent deals with no matter how great of parents.

Stay strong, Mama! Stay strong, Daddy! Someday, we will sleep.

Any crazy requests from your little one at bedtime?! Leave them in the comments! Give us tired parents a chuckle!

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