cant bear the hell that is bedtime any longer

[Debris]

My dd is 5 . At bedtime it is like someone has flicked a switch. It doesnt seem to matter what time we start the bedtime routine. Her behaviour becomes hideous. She wont go to the toilet , brush her teeth , get undressed , get her pyjamas on. She throws herself around , crawls around the floor , acts like a baby. To be honest its quite hard to describe. It can go on for ages and no matter how we act with her , its like she just cant stop. We have tried every approach. Its so wearing. I ended up in tears of frustration tonight. By the time she is eventually in bed it is so late that I feel ready for bed myself.The earlier we start , the longer it goes on for. Any experience or advice would be appreciated. Im so worn down with it all.

i find a forceful hand helps when ds1 is like this

we always do the same thing, consistency helps i find.

so, there is always a 10 minute warning, then a 5 minute warning.
then we get into pj's. if he won't get his pyjamas on then we do it for him. it does help if dp is around to help with this bit!

keep re-iterating that it IS bedtime, he WILL be going to bed and that we can do it a nice way where we all stay happy, or we can do it a bad way (where we MAKE him get ready). it's his choice

then teeth and face wash. again, if he refuses then we do it for him.

point out that the more time he wastes messing around then the less time he has for stories (this is really beginning to work well now, he has more grasp of time)

then stories and bed.

i don't really care what he does once he is upstairs, as long as the lights are out and he doesn't keep coming down.
sometimes he sits and stares out the window, sometimes he plays in bed.
he ALWAYS falls asleep tho!