Does anyone else get so bloody bored of the bedtime routine, that they would rather let their child stay up, getting more and more tired, rather than move their arse off the sofa to start the whole mind-numbing ritual going, one more tedious time?

[FrannyandZooey]

Goddddddddd it's dull.

DS2 is OK-ish, because he is a sensible child who wants to go to sleep, and starts saying, if he's up beyond 7.30, "It's way past my bedtime".

DS1 on the otherhand is a whirling dervish of distractibility who is still twittering and twirling around his room at 10.00 at the moment (he is 7). So I get sick of calling up the stairs "Into bed now".

Am I the only mother that resorts to putting the cold tap on to get them out after the bath is empty?
I put the shower on cold over them if things are particularly fraught.

Does it really take a long time. I think 30 minutes from playing downstairs to in bed with lights out and quiet is not bad. When in between there are two bathed, medicated children with clean teeth having been read to, clothes in basket, clothes for tomorrow laid out.

singersgirl - "twittering and twirling" - we really do have the same boy, don't we? Except that mine saves that mostly for the early morning getting dressed and breakfast rush. Bedtime he's mostly fine about, although he does like to lie in bed and dreamily sing (wordlessly and to his own rather contemporary melodies) something he's done since he was a few weeks old.

Bink, I'm not sure which is worse for twittering and twirling - morning or evening. DS1 is phenomenally grumpy in the morning, largely I'm sure because he's so tired. So he snarls and hisses at everyone until he has eaten 2 large bowls of cereal, and then the dancing and warbling starts again. It is all Yugi-Oh! fuelled right now, which must (along with IKEA) be one of the circles of hell.

Love the title of this thread..and the answer is yesssss.lol

some very good points on this thread! sometimes just the whole hassle of bedtime can seem too much. I sometimes wish a fairy would just wave a wand & all would be done for me!!

Message withdrawn

Putting them to bed is bad enough, but latterly we also have to contend with the mysterious non-sleeping DS1, who is quite often still awake at 10 p.m....

lol Fennel

DD and DS are so different when it comes to bedtime. Come half seven DS (4) will say "Mummy my eyes are tired now" and he has always been this way, even on holiday after 8.30 every night you could guarantee he would be snoring away in his buggy!!! He's one of those that lies down and is asleep within 10 minutes of his head hitting the pillow - a bit like me actually.

DD (6) on the other hand will fight tooth and nail to stay up that extra "five more minutes" and if you put her to bed earlier than 8.30 she just tosses and turns and umms and ahhs so we just let her stay up now until 9.00, she just doesn't need as much sleep - bit like her Dad.

Megg, I will work on it

Oh god, it's all going to start again in a couple of hours, he's knackered already, aargh

Bugsy2

Your post was a classic, I'm now in my open plan office laughing so hard I'm sobbing whilst laughing hysterically - people are staring at me, not quite sure if I'm having some kind of fit as I usually sit here looking like I'm working so hard.

Oh this thread has made my afternoon

DS (2) assumes the horizontal by 6.45pm, then DD (4.5) gets quarter of an hour Big Girl Time (current favourite activity is a quick game of Frustration with me) before we go upstairs and do teeth,wee, story and bed. It all goes to plan until the last kiss, when she will invariably have a last minute stalling tactic up her sleeve. Last night it was "Hang on! I need to count my fingers. I'm sure I've only got nine!" I exhale slowly and measuredly, whilst she counts her fingers and decides she has ten after all. Gah! Still, small price to pay for the beautiful, gorgeous time afterwards......