Wonder if any of the older, wiser and experienced among us can give any tips.
My 5 year old is good as gold but for the past 3 weeks has all of a sudden started playing up at bedtime. Complaining of various ailments that suddenly appear at bedtime and just coming downstairs every time she's left up there multiple times.
It seems to be a bit of a common theme amongst her school friends since the covid lockdown and perhaps it's understandably causing anxt.
Have tried the nice approach, the not nice approach (threating to take away toys etc) and nothing working.
Anyone got any ideas of things that worked for you in the past?
She's fine and seemingly very happy all day and gets loads of exercise etc but it's just bedtimes. Wife and I obviously need time to chill in the evenings as it's quite relentless with 2 young children in the parameters of lockdown (Im working at home full time Mon to Friday) but main concern is how the lack of sleep is/ will affect her on top of the already non ideal lack of socialisation with her friends.
Any pointers or insight will be gratefully received. Not a major issue and very much a first world problem and even then I know many parents have it far far tougher but this place is always a great source of wisdom and first hand experience so thought I'd take a punt.
Cheers
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Comments
If she is have you decided if she is going back or not and told her what your decision is?
She could be upset that either she is or isn't going back, whichever way you decided.
Nearly broke us though!
Thought long and hard about it. In the end decided not to, a large reason being that it would mean her 3 year old brother who has been loving her company would be on his own.
She is really upset about not going to school and missing her friends in general so it wasn't easy to keep her home and is definitely a contributor to it.
Thanks @ca@"carly burn" will try and persevere with that from tomorrow.
As a parent it is all too easy to give the younger more dependent children more attention than the older ones without intending to.
As the father of 3 daughters and grandfather of 3 grandsons in my experience children of all ages often want a bit of individual attention at bedtime and sometimes it is best to just 'go with it' and after a few days they settle of their own accord once they know you will be there if they want you.
I know you say she’s missing friends etc but did she know there was a possibility to go back and that’s now been taken away from her (she may hold resentment towards her brother if that’s the case)
in my experience the less they know the better re certain situations when younger .
if all else fails a right hander might make her think twice about stepping downstairs
The weather and lighter evenings will no doubt be a factor in kids finding it harder to go to sleep. Kids may also be doing less physical movement during the day to tire them out when at home.
Good luck, not getting an evening at the end of the day is draining.
This is meant as a joke, I’m not suggesting you share your beer with anyone.
I am no expert.
However one thing that has had success for me in the past is to acknowledge and respect the resistance before the insistence.
With words especially.
As in not saying 'go to bed', but saying something like 'sweetheart, I can see you don't feel (the key word) like going to bed right now, but you have to' or similar. Or 'you have to in one minute'.
Might lead to a bit of negotiation, but you can still insist, and negotiation is a good learning system for everybody.
Good luck.
Eg. Try thinking of all the things you’d like to do tomorrow/ at the weekend, try and remember everywhere you can remember going on holiday and think of five things you can remember from that holiday, think of all the characters in Peppa Pig and choose your favourite three, think of all the foods you ate today, alphabet games (depending of age. think of a food / football team / place / girls name etc beginning with A, B, C) etc
Anything that fills there thought process and takes their concentration away from concerns. The natural tiredness process and a dark room should kick in at some stage.
Her daughter would come down and be allowed a 'win' by being allowed to stay up for a further 5/10 minutes until Alexa announced it was time for her to go to bed. As I say it was a brief respite for a few days, but most welcome just the same.
Lots of really good advice on here, thank you.
Our daughter broke down this afternoon due to missing her friends. She's back in school tomorrow for 2 days a week but her best friends are key worker's kids and have been in school all along & they'll be kept separate.
We were worried about her when the lockdown started as she's suffered with emotional issues in the past but she's coped with it really well. In some respects lockdown has been nice as we've eaten pretty much every meal and spent a lot of time doing things together but other than WhatsApp calls, she's hardly seen any of her friends.
It's difficult enough for adults to take in the concept of what's gong on, let along young kids.