6 year old not staying in room

[Ilovecandlez]

Hi. My six year old has started not staying in his room when we leave him. He’ll run out and hide and when we go and get him to bring him back to bed he starts shouting and hitting. The books say lead him back to bed and don’t speak but I’d be doing that hundreds of times in the first hour so it’s not doable. Anyone experienced similar? I think this is a new problem for us. When he’s asleep it’s fine.

Ask him why he’s doing it... it’s probably fear of missing out on something. If he says because I want to watch tv for example you can say we aren’t going to watch tv either and then make sure you don’t for that one night.

Could you stay upstairs after putting him to bed? You can then return him back as soon as her gets up.

Returning him a hundred times is perfectly do able, you just need to be more determined than he is.

Thanks all!

Agree - if it takes hundreds of times for the first few nights it's still worth it in the long run.

Perhaps his bedtime is a bit early. And with these light nights he might not feel ready for sleep. I'd let him stay up a bit later and set a time but only if he behaves and stays in his room after bed time.

I bought my 6 year old a reading lamp and let her read for half an hour, then go in and switch her light off. Would something like that help?

Have you spoken to him about it to see if there is a particular issue that can be sorted eg more/less light, slightly later bedtime etc.

My son is 6 and he can come down a lot at times but he just takes a long time to settle. I find he sleeps easier if we give him calm time in the lead up to bedtime (eg no tv, quiet play/drawing on his own, have milk and read a book). He’s not a child that can just go in to bed and switch off straight away. Any anxiety or worry also comes out at bedtime so we usually have to address them if there are any too.

We found an audio book helped my son at one point. He listened to one after we left and I think he felt like he had company and/or it gave him something to listen to while he settlesd.

You are not alone. My 5yo DD is exactly the same and finds it hilarious. This is a new thing for us too which she has started doing since lockdown.