How many patently manufactured excuses for wandering the house after bedtime do you tolerate?

[snigger]

We're on number three.

DD2 has required :

(1) A hug
(2) A drink
(3) Advice on a mysterious mid-back itch.

I aim for bed + story = sleep within 15 minutes usually, but when the wanderlust is upon them I usually tolerate two room-breaks before the squawking starts.

How far does your patience stretch?

1 request for a drink then i shout at them so they don't want to be downstairs with me.

ds2 (3y) can go for a wee - once only.

2 is the max before I get narky.

None. If they do get up without good reason they get told to go back to bed without any further interaction, No tucking in, no good night, nothing.

One and I'm not too cross, any more than that and I get really grumpy. But obviously not grumpy enough as ds has been REALLY trying my patience last night and tonight.

Tomorrow night he will be on a very strict regime.

DH is like you, BetaDad - one tootsie out of bed and it's boot camp.

I think I'll be on strict regime duty with you, edam, there is serious taking of the michael occurring here.

None here. Harsh regime.[grin}

Would perhaps allow a drink if ds1 had a sore throat or some possibly legitimate reason.

My favourite recently was - after about 4 specific 'I need's - 'I need a [long pause] something'

I'm sure that all that creativity will stand them in good stead when they are older.

I have very limited patience with mine as well - my mantra is that it is time for DS to go to bed because I am exhausted!

I allow one (and it has to be a very good reason)

Dh allows three but he's a bit of a pushover ...

The excuses are getting more varied and interesting though. The other night the Virgin Mary had flown in through dd's bedroom window and was sitting in her cupboad (apparently).

1 request for a drink and 1 for the toilet, even then it's minimal interaction and straight back to bed.

We get the wild excuses i.e. there is a lion dressed as a princess in the toilet

My patience isn't too good by bedtime tbh.

Too much up and down x 3dc does wind me up because it always seems to involve more up and down the stairs trips for me. They do push it a bit. Or I can hear them out of bed scampering about.

But then if I shout and get cross I feel bad that the day had to end on that note; but sometimes it's the only way to put a stop to it.

Light evenings don't help. Even with thick curtains, they know it's still light outside.

ROFL at 'there is a lion dressed as a princess in the toilet'. What if there was though??!

None. I tolerate no after bedtime wanderings. DS has to stay in his room unless he needs the loo or a drink, and then he has to deal with these issues alone.

After I've read his story and left his bedroom for the night I am 'off-duty' as mother and he knows this.

DD2 is 9 and has always found bedtime difficult. She regularly comes down for a drink or to complain something hurts, when all she really wants another cuddle. Which she gets!

TsarChasm - re the light evenings - I tried to crowbar in some culture and appreciation of the essential changelessness of childhood by reading them Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson -

five minutes later, there was screeching, hair pulling, and intervention because DD2 had to defend the poets honour after DD1 called him Pooey Stevenson.

It's lose-lose, all the way.

oh good thread!
dd had been good about this until recently.
Now we have maybe 2 or 3 getting ups for nonsense reasons such as

1. I don't have anything to cuddle (there's soft toys a plenty on her bed!) - she actually means I didn't ask her what she wanted to cuddle and physically hand it to her!
2. Needs the toilet - went before her bath!

3.It's still morning (light outside) - fair enough, but curtains and blinds are down and it is bedtime!

1. Need a tissue
2. Need a drink
3. I've got a cough?!

7 There's no music on???

1. Not sleepy

These are a few and she been threatened with the stair gate being fixed across her door to stop her getting out. She's 3.5! I get annoyede after 1 excuse as I spend plenty of time on her bedtime routine, so it's not as if I don't spend quality time with her and settle her and tuck her in. I will not do all this again!

Lol! Pooey Stevenson..brilliant

At least it was more of a 'high-brow' row. Almost worthy of Front Row that one!

I get 'he keeps flicking my ear'.. Or 'I'm hot' Yes, you are hot because every possession you own is in bed with you.

I just let DS (he's 3yrs) get on with it mostly.
He can get up to go to the toilet as many times as he needs to.
Even if I can hear scampering or the sound of him reading books to himself or playing with toys I mostly just leave him.
As lomg as he's quiet and in his room (unless he's in the toilet) and not bothering me then whats the harm?
Some nights I go up to bed and he's curled up asleep in my bed so I just scoop him up, put him back and thats that

Or that all time, vaudeville classic -

"Mum, it hurts when I do this"

"Then don't do that".

Tiger - I'd go with the stairgate. Soon.

Ohh I love that we are all in the same boat.

This period in the evening drives me mad. I have a 2.10y DD2, 11y DD1 and 13y DS, so it starts from 8pm and lasts until after 10pm. I need to get a LOT more strict, but I'm such a wuss.

I will be taking some much needed notes from this thread.

About three before grumpiness sets in. DD always gets up and wanders while DS never does it. Is there a gender correlation?