How would you deal with this behaviour - have I been too harsh?

[theduchessstill]

DSs (12 & 10) went completely loopy at bedtime after quite a nice, calm evening of homework, dinner, some tv and music. They were shouting, making silly noises deliberately to annoy me, getting out of bed, the lot. Fuck know why. They go up at 9pm and are allowed to read for 20-30 minutes. Have tried a separate bedtime but it never works out.

I lost it with them after about half an hour and taken all lights from the room, including the main bulb and said no phones at all tomorrow, or Xbox (allowed one hour each on week night). I have also said bed early tomorrow. Unfortunately they are home without me quite a bit - about an hour in the morning and up to 2 hours after school, though tomorrow I can get back just after them.

I'm at a bit of a loss really and so fucking angry. I don't really want to hide the phones since they are alone but there is a house phone and ds2 doesn't take his to school anyway. They could have separate bedrooms but choose to share and it's not easy to change back.

AIBU? I'd love to know why they get such a kick out of winding me up...

Did they have anything unusual to eat or drink yesterday evening? One of the families I've nannied for, the children were usually very good, but the one time they were absolutely unmanageable they'd had fairy cakes with decorations on after tea. It was all down to the colours or whatever in the tiny little cake decs They literally couldn't control their own behaviour and no number of 'consequences' could have helped. Was it something like that perhaps?

I think you should modify the punishment to just no xbox and take it to work with you. That should do the trick

I feel for you op. I took phones off mine & left our mobile numbers on the fridge & the landline to use in emergency.

They were horrified that I carried through my promise & know I mean business now

Yadnbu, I would have thrown the x box in the bin!

and taken all lights from the room, including the main bulb

OMG, were they Philips Hue or Plumen bulbs by any chance!?

YANBU. I have 3 boys around this age. They regularly try on this kind of shit, waiting till after bedtime to mess around with each other. It results in them losing WiFi the next day because that's what hits them where it hurts. From my experience and from talking to friends, it's quite common but still annoying and not what us parents want when we're tired!