bedtime bootcamp
my niece shuttered and was almost crying, noooo please no bedtime bootcamp!!!
ok, i was a little intimidating at times when we played this game but i definitely got the message across-when i say bedtime i mean it.
it’s not so much that bedtime MUST HAPPEN it’s more that we need to learn CERTAIN things must happen in certain instances and we just have to do it. if we don’t learn that lesson, then everything seems optional. and bedtime is something that really helps us with our health and life productivity. so it’s a good one to work on.
and if things have gone too far and we’re pushing back a lot at bedtime, then yes, we need some extreme measures to get us back on the right track.
i used a firm voice with my niece and nephew-this is not a choice. it is time for bed. you have 5 minutes to brush teeth and put on pajamas.
lots of push back, just because. and then i stood there-outside the door for a very long time. i whispered through the door that i could hear them talking and that i would come in if there was more.
i’d sit right next to them if they needed just so that they would stop talking and fall asleep.
i didn’t want them to get used to having someone there to fall asleep but that measure needed to be taken to just get them to abruptly stop the habit of staying up too late and not just getting into bed already and laying there quietly.
it was just important to enforce the physical behavior of laying there quietly.
they messed around alot-talking, hiding under the bed, complaining, sometimes crying or getting angry with me
it didn’t always work, but that’s also because it wasn’t done in a controlled environment with multiple nights of it.
looking back i think about the different ways we could make changes to make it better-have coloring time, quiet music time, discussion time to talk about sleep and why it’s healthy-the options are endless for how we can prepare our bodies for the quiet transition. this is something that we (hopefully) learn to be important when we’re older but it is the job of the parent to help children build patterns of behavior for healthy sleep as children even if they don’t see the importance yet.
bedtime bootcamp became a big inside joke in the family. i acted scary and they would say please no! no bedtime bootcamp! it would make them appreciate regular bedtime with their parents:) but we all learned from it. the importance of structure for bedtime. a routine either strict or not, but a routine and follow through of some sort.
anyways-my sister and the kids pretended to do “bedtime bootcamp” at my wedding as a joke and it made me so happy. we made some real memories-they had a whistle and did push ups as a joke (i never made the kids do those) it was so cute and memorable:)
