Communities

Welcome to Circle of Moms!!

All Communities > Welcome to Circle of Moms!! > How to make bedtime easier for me and my toddler?

How to make bedtime easier for me and my toddler?

Michelle - posted on 07/12/2011 ( 1 mom has responded )

31

21

Does anyone have ideas to make bedtime easier for me and my toddler. Every night is always a fight that ends with her coming out a bunch and then when I bring her back in she cries for 5 minutes and comes out again and this can go on anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. I have made a bedtime routine so that she knows we are getting ready for bed and its the same every night, but this always happens. It is super stressful for me and I am sure it is for her to. And I just dont know what to do. Please help

Join Circle of Moms

Sign up for Circle of Moms and be a part of this community! Membership is just one click away.

Join Circle of Moms

1 Comment

View replies by

Amy - posted on 07/12/2011

26

9

I'm glad you have a routine - it's so important for this issue. I have one too and usually it works like a charm, but we did go through a period of time where my toddler (at the time) kept getting up. First, make sure your routine really is setting her up for sleep, not just signalling the start of the resistance. Make sure it is soothing and ends with a quiet period that transitions you out of the room without taking so long it becomes its own problem. If she gets up, return her immediately to bed with either no talking at all or a curt "it's bedtime." No discussion, no arguing, no delay. At one point I stood outside the door so when my daughter opened it I was right there to pick her up and put her back in bed. It doesn't work right away the first night (you may put her back a dozen times and there will be crying) but never vary the procedure and it will work. By night 2 or 3 it was all over for us and we have rarely had a problem since. If she does try this over again we go back to the silent return and it ends quickly, usually the first night. Getting up once to go to the bathroom is fine, but after that the excuses are over.

Hope this helps - a good routine and consistent, loving follow through are the keys to ending this.

Want to find out the opinions of this community?

Add Poll