New to this and don't know if the above is a current acronym but it stands for end of my tether! Daughter is 9 - 10 in late summer and we have struggled with bedtime for as long as I can remember. She will go to bed dragging her heels which hubby & I can handle but once in and after sometimes reading for a while with or without me but always getting kisses & cuddles and "tucked in" by both of us, she has got up again almost every night without fail. Sometimes this happens 5 or 6 times.Her reasons vary from noisy wind/weather outside, to being too warm/too cold, to anxiety about her health - a spot or cough or any minor thing (is major to her), tv too quiet/too loud?, having something she "must" tell us there & then, not wanting to get up and go to the toilet on her own - the list goes on. We've tried gentle reasoning, explanations, punishment, giving her supper, not giving her supper, varying her bedtime.... She is allowed into our bed one night a week (at the weekend), we live in a pretty quiet neighbourhood, she has a lovely comfy bed & room, we always leave a nightlight on in her room and in the hall outside. We hardly ever go out either alone or together but when we do, she is usually okay with my Mum who babysits.She is very intelligent with an active imagination and a happy little girl during the day who gets on well at school and has lots of friends.Hubby & I get very little time to ourselves to relax as we are early bedders due to him having to get up early for work during the week and it is stressing us out totally and sometimes winds up with us shouting at her which we instantly feel bad about. I want my daughter to be able to go to bed and go to sleep without her worrying about anything and everything and bedtime not ending on a sour note. It would be heaven if we didn't sit downstairs each night feeling tense, waiting for the evening's excuses to start. Usually kicks off about ten to fifteen minutes after settling her down. Am really starting to think we need to take her to GP to have a child psychologist referral made. Blame myself to a degree as I used to read her a story then sit and hold her hand until she fell asleep when she was tiny but gradually moved away from that. Thought it would be like her dummy - she gave that up easily enough before she was two even though she loved it. Would never send her to bed without kisses & cuddles but is it too much to be allowed some adult time? Think not as we have to be healthy to be there for her but tension is wearing us down.