4/5 year old bedtime.... ARGH!

[cavycavy]

How on earth do you get you kids to get in bed, stay in bed and go to sleep.

I feel like I’m trying all the usual tricks, a nice relaxing bedtime routine, reward chart, starting earlier so it feels less rushed, stories, cuddles, calm... my DD is constantly trying to negotiate ‘deals’ that are all basically designed to delay bedtime and keep us as close to her as possible. If she had it her way she would fall asleep cuddled up to us every night. Sometimes I think that would just be easier!!

At the moment, we have supper, Bath, stories, then she likes to fall asleep listening to music while I potter about upstairs.

Sometimes she’s asleep within 10 mins, sometimes it’s an hour with millions of requests. Sometimes I feel like I’m going insane!

Is this normal? Should I be putting my foot down and laying down the law? Or am I being too harsh by not giving in to cuddling her to sleep??

i find that you have to ignore them (hard though it is). so we followed our routine, but once they were in bed and had had their story, i didn't respond to them calling out, unless it was urgent. they tended to fall asleep pretty quickly after a few nights when they realised that i wasn't going to reply.

Ok, ignoring! I’ll try very hard tomorrow night. So I guess it’s like controlled crying or, in this case, controlled negotiating and procrastination.