When DS has been with his Dad I have trouble getting him to bed

[BertieBotts]

Does anyone else find this? I am not sure if it's that his usual routine has been disturbed, or if it's the novelty of seeing him that gets him excited or whether he has been feeding him crap all day. DS is 17 months and is just completely hyper when I am trying to get him to bed, more like overtiredness than anything else.

bump

Yes, I guess is the changes in routine, is like coming home from a trip.

I used to be very annoyed by this, now I see it as part and parcel of contact arrangements. A hot bath before bed helps.

Any one of those factors could be at play, or all of them. How long does the bedtime disruption go on? Is it days or weeks?

It's usually just that day, but he sees him both days every weekend (not overnight yet) and has done for nearly 4 months now so I think I was just assuming he would settle down once he got used to it but perhaps it is still a novelty to him, a week must be a long time to a toddler.

Probably not helped by XP not sticking to times properly recently, I will try having a word with him!

Thanks for posts

Weeks are very long and habits are formed very quickly. DH was putting DS in our bed "to get him to sleep" last weekend, and that meant poor DS was inconsolable when I put him to bed in his own bed again. I was quite annoyed, as I had to sleep on a floor futon one night to reconcile DS to his bed again! Happily, that one night in his own bed cracked the bad habit, so at least there is some advantage to how easily they are disrupted from expectations!

The best solution is to let DS stay overnight at Dad's. He (Dad) will very quickly link the activities during the day (crap food, too much excitment, whatever) with a difficult night and learn how to balance it out. Also the more they see of Dad the more normal it becomes, so less wild excitement.

Oh Tanga... my ex has have years to make the link and still... it doesn't click. He just wind him up big time over the weekend and if I'm lucky, I may be able to get him back into routine in a couple of days... a sisyphean task..,.

I misunderstood the title of this thread completely....must be my dirty mind

As you were