That was the question codswallop. I don't like 'no' either, but you can't say "I won't let them say 'no' to me" If a child says 'no', then he's said 'no' he's hardly going to say 'no thank youy' in response to me or dh asking or telling him to go upstairs/to the bathroom. What happened was that he said 'no' we repeated Yes, convincingly, the ionstruction, then dh ran out of patience and frog-marched him up to his room. But when he's going through a deliberately difficult phase, I haven't got the energy to march him to his room every 2 minutes. In fact, I might as well not let him out at all. How old are your kids, codswallop?
My problem as well is that they have been so good, relatively easy and generally very well behaved kids (of course, they've had thier moments) over the last 2.5 & 4 years that their bad behaviour is even more alarming. I don't think anyone would be in any doubt that I mean what I say. But like I said, every request/ action in our daily life/bed time cannot be so confrontational. It is depressing, a shitty was to end the day every day, and the whole day is so tiring.
For what it's worth, I tried the staggered bedtime tonight, plus it was ds2's 1st day without a nappy - we even went to a friend's house and a cafe all together (after picking dh up from work) and he didn't have a single accident! The bedtime worked fine. I read ds2 his story, and I think he really liked having it all to himself. Then we put him to bed & went to the spare room & read ds1 a big, long, big boy story & that was really good for him. Ds2 was still awake, so he got a 2nd story by which time ds2 was off, so we popped ds1 into bed & not a peep. Fantastic . Not sure what we'll do the nights ds2 doesn't go off quickly.
Thanks kayleigh, that was sweet.
Oh, and I haven't shouted once today. Very tempted to when they dropped my rings down the sink & lost my eternity ring, which was not down the u-bend with my wedding ring.... Miaculously a 3 rings found & my temper remained intact!
The cotbed is a possibility Aloha, of course he's easily fir in it, but we wanted him well and truly removed from it, so no associations with the baby. He's been out of it about 2 months already. Anyway, we'll see if the staggered bedtime & pasta jar works. Oh, and fingers crossed for the toilet training! Thanks again. Dunno what I'd do without you.
They've been really lovely today.