Do your children play up at bedtime?

[lavender1]

I had to write this because every night dh and me end up having a go at children. After 5 minutes of going to bed they are going into each others bedrooms...all sort of threats seem to bypass them and quite frankly I am fed up of the noise and total reluctance to listen. by 9pm they are asleep, when I was little we would never have dared get out of bed, short of yelling(and don't tell me reasoning works because have tried this) I am quite desperate and feel quite hopeless at times...Please tell me someone else has this problem and isn't some perfect mother with perfect solutions to everything...they are quiet now..Only 18 months apart wonder if this has any kind of affect!

depends how old they are i suppose as to what methods to use. can tell you tht you are not alone in this - we send ours to bed at a different time. i have twins aged 10 and a 14 year old. twin 2 goes to bed earlier than twin one - this isn't fair - but i know he needs more sleep than twin 1 so he goes to bed half an hour earlier. the 14 year old goes to bed when the twinnies are asleep.

the twinnies dont like the fact that their older bro gets more time up and te rule is that older bro will go to bed when thy are asleep - the quicker they go to sleep the quicker older bro gets to go to bed - so the jealousy of older bro getting time alone with mum and dad and who knows what treats from the fridge when they are in bed - drives them so mad - they go to sleep!

the other thng i use is this - if they mess around on night one - they go to bed earlier on night two - if they mess on night two - they go earlier again night three and so on. eventually when they are going to bed on night three at 6.30 - they keep quiet. but you have to follow this through.

hope this helps!

Constantly. I'm determined to sort it out in the new year. I was supposed to be wrapping presents tonight and dd2 has only just gone to sleep.

I just about get them settled down and then dh comes home from work, they find a new lease of life and all hell breaks loose.

I'm sitting here feeling pretty miserable now, dh kept snapping at them to settle down and in the end stomped off to watch telly in another room. A bit of support from him would be nice, but i can't see it happening.

Enough of my moaning now, you have my sympathy I know how you feel.

No, but then I only have the one and she is just 17 months. Perhaps I have this joy to come.... Sympathies - it must be very wearing!

I have never had a problem with them going to bed (she says touching wood). We have had a very strict bedtime routine from day 1 with both ds1 and ds2 and it seems to have paid off. Sometimes if they are really tired they ask to skip the story and go to bed !! They go into their own beds and have their books to read and I don't hear another peep out of them except for them to ask for more books if they happen to get through the first lot before they fall asleep.
I know I'm lucky. They are 5.5 and 2.5 by the way. How old are yours lavender1

lavender1 you could be me!! I have 2 girls, 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 and they share a room - they prefer it and don't want separate rooms. It usually takes us nearly 2 hrs of threats and yelling to finally get tehm to sleep. They go to bed at about 7 - 7.30 and it can be 9.30 before all is quiet. I have no idea - short of separating them and locking them in individual bedrooms - how to work this. However if we have a babysitter r they are staying at grannys, they don't do this. I think they know what buttons to press. My goal for the Christmas holidays is to crack this problem. The only thing that works at the moment is a light smack on the bum (!) so I think a combination of that and the earlier bedtime as hoho suggested might be on the cards. How old are your kids??

Our children are 8 1/2 and 3 weeks off being 7. They were good at 4 and 5 1/2, it's only in the last year that they are becoming like "Kevin The Teenager" and ignoring my pleas! Anyone else got an 18 month age gap and angels at bedtime or little devils?....Wonder if having a boy and a girl makes a difference, boys do tend to be quite boisterous...Merry Christmas to one and all

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