Anyone with a school age and a toddler sharing a room - HELP!

[mummynoseynora]

I havd 2 DC, (DD 5, and DS 2) They share a room, we have a 2 bed property - no other choice,
although they have always loved it and 9/10 its fab....

recently however at bedtime

DS will be sleepy - I normally put him to bed first, but only by a few mins - just settle him and then get DD ready 10 mins max. This has always been fine

anyhoo - I put him to bed, get DD in - and then she'll start pissing about ( she has always been fantastic at going to bed) I know the recent heat hasn't helped and have staid calm etc then, but last couple of nights particularly have been a bloody nightmare

she'll start pissing about, and of course 2 year old see's it and thinks playtime... and then gets hyper - I have not long got them both to sleep tonight - DS was in bed by 6.45 and DD at 7

in the end DS bashed his head running around and felt sorry for himself and staid in bed, and I had a rant at DD after internally losing it

Can anyone help with some strategies to restore the calm at bedtime?!

That's not a bad time for them to be in bed.

I have three in one room: 7,5,2. I suggest you settle them down with a story, in beds no running about. Then I'm afraid I stand sentry at the door until everyone is sleeping.

The eldest is allowed to stay up and read in hold and at weekends, sometimes in our bed, sometimes with a torch in her own bed.

I do stand sentry - back in at the first sound but I am finding it harder to stay calm tbh!

8 isn't bad in the grand scheme of things - but considering they have pretty much always been story / put them down / zonko - type kids its getting hard...

DD was at a birthday party yesterday and got DS so hyper it was closer to 9 before he was asleep... and they are kids who need their 12 or so hours too, but won't sleep in

Then I think you need to be firm with them.

Have you tried starting bed time routine a bit earlier? Give them time to 'carry on,' then be firm about stories, lights out, no getting up.

Mine are 3.5 and 5 - I bath them and read a story in bedroom then put on a story CD. Most of the time they fall asleep while listening to it. The rest of the time they piss about.

They are in bunks and usually go to bed at the same time as they hate going separately.

Watching with interest! Our 5yo has started sneaking into our bed in the middle of the night to escape his 19mo baby brother, who likes to stand in his cot and yell "HIYA! HIYA! 'ELLOOOOOO!" at him in a comedy Mr Bloom voice.

Actual beditme isn't too bad as we put the baby to bed first, and while he's settling himself to sleep we do DS1's reading/read a story. It's just DS2 waking him up in the night/early morning that's making me loopy.

We're going to get bunk beds as soon as I'm feeling foolish brave enough.

I have a 5yo and 3yo in the same room and only way it works for us is to put them to bed at different times. Little one goes to bed first and that gives us time to read etc with older one. Messing about by either of them results in earlier bedtime the following night.

My DDs shared at that age and it became really hard to deal with as like your two the little one would be tired, but the 5 yr old would want to jump around and fiddle about, keep DD2 awake, then there would be over tired crying and it all ended up in a mess with me getting v cross. After a while we changed the routine slightly - bath and stories together then I would send DD1 through to my bedroom with a few picture books and settle DD2 to sleep. About half an hour later (or longer if I forgot about her and was busy doing something else downstairs), once DD2 was asleep DD1 would go through. She really enjoyed having a bit of extra time looking at books and fiddling about, but if she was tired could drop off in my bed and then I'd move her through, so it wasn't exactly as if she was staying up.

my 6 yr old and 2.5 yr old have been sharing a room for about a year and there has been some hairy moments, they mostly go to bed at the same time, 7pm, have story and straight to bed, my 6 yr old knows that she can play or read quietly to herself but nothing that will disturb her sister, if you lay down the rules, police them strictly, they will ........eventually.......comply and then everyone gets a good nights sleep!

ooh missed all these updates!

Over the bank holiday weekend I have made the most of DH being home to try and kick this into touch, we have decided that we need to get them out for a walk / exercise after dinner every day if possible - we have done this for the last 4 days and its helped hugely.

Tonight was my first night back on my own, we went for a walk to the park for an hour or so, getting home at 6.30 in time for calming down bit of cbeebies / milk etc - got them both into bed together and read them a story each

They were asleep within 30 mins which is a huge improvement really - and probably would have been sooner had DS not felt the need to save up his poo for after I'd put him to bed!

They get read a story together and then the 3 yo goes to sleep while the 6 yo brushes her teeth and then reads in our bed. About half an hour later the 6 yo goes to bed. I take her in with a torch and then creep out. The problems only arise if dd2 wakes up at that point - then all hell breaks loose.