4.5 yr olds ignore me until I get really mad with them!

[GoingLoopy]

Morning and bedtimes are frustrating me so much at the moment! And at these 2 important times of the day I have started to quite frequently lose my temper and end up yelling at DT(S)s. I try every possible way in the book to tell them to get dressed, I have done sticker charts, take the toys away they are playing with, on saturday we sat in the car waiting for dt2 to get dressed before we could go out (dt1 was no problem), on Sunday we sat in the car waiting for dt1 to get dressed (dt2 was no problem). THis morning we were back to square one with both of them again. Bedtimes are the same........! I am tired of it (and hate myself for losing my temper!)!

I know I am doing something wrong here but not sure what, anyone got any suggestions?

[Mollymax]

My youngest is 4 years 3 months, and to be honest I do not leave her to get herself dressed, I always help her. we make a game out of it as much as possible.
I think you may be expecting to much of your little ones.

[NorksAreMessy]

what are they doing when they should be getting dressed?

they are really quite little not to be distracted by anything more interesting than getting dressed (in other words, EVERYTHING!)

they might need a bit of a 'race' mentality, with you umpiring 'first one to put his trousers on gets a tickle; first one to get teeth cleaned gets a kiss' etc etc

[Pandsbear]

Oooh sounds familiar! I have DTDs and at (just) 6 there are still moments of the day when I could s-c-r-e-a-m. Bedtimes and leaving the house being two of them. From tomorrow I will have getting them up and to school on time to add in but that is another story.

You're not doing anything wrong. I find they get distracted by each other/toys/anything except getting dressed. Sometimes the race against each other works, sometimes not depending on mood. Bedtimes are almost worse as they get carried away with screeching and giggling as their dad has arrived home...

I do think as they get older it will be easier. At 4 my two still had plenty of help with the dressing and even now I do it just to speed things up/get them moving.