You know, the ones you SWEAR you will never allow yourself to become?? The ones you just KNOW are too lazy to correct their children, who allow the kids to do whatever they want whenever they want....the kind we promise ourselves we WON'T become.
For the last month or so my boys have been terrible about going to bed. For a while they shared a bunk bed. Then when they'd be in bed together, Cameron would shake the bunk bed and wake up Jake, just because, and Jake would reciprocate. I got annoyed with the squeaking and the fighting, so I took the bunk bed apart and then downstairs. Right now, the boys' beds are just mattresses on the floor, nothing more.
Since I took the blasted bunk beds down, bedtime has been a nightmare.
Cameron will poke/hit/kick Jake, and Jake will bug/poke/annoy Cam. We tried separating them (which worked!), but then I spent a week at my parents' house. Things were completely messed up. This week I've been on the brink of tears every SINGLE night.
The boys scream, yell and fight even more than usual. Bedtime has NOT happened before 11:00 all week. Both boys are cranky, and to tell you the truth, I'm grouchy myself.
Tonight, Steve helped out. He's truly been a HUGE help when the boys won't listen to me. After 3 times trying to send the boys to bed together/separate times, he'd had enough with the fighting and let Jake stay downstairs until Cam fell asleep. (This is what we've been doing, and generally it works....) Soon Jake was running around playing with pillows and blankets, then he was playing with his toys. At that moment I saw myself through someone elses' eyes....I was the lazy parent who let their child stay awake as long as they wanted and just let them have free reign of the house.
I yelled, "We're THOSE parents!!! We let our kid run amok and haven't enforced their bedtime!!"
Steve laughed.
I sent Jake off to bed and just allowed World War III continue without intervention.
Again, it was after 11:00 before the screaming stopped, but I've hit my limit....I'm DONE! I don't want to fight this fight any more. I want my kids to listen the FIRST time I tell them something (maybe the second, but not on the 10th time....)
I'm so disappointed in myself...I'm one of THOSE parents.
3 comments:
You've joined my ranks!!! LOL!
Really though, I think you're great! They were so cute last night at pack meeting....
Bed time ensues war over here each night, too...but Kortlen is sleeping through the night! *I may have just jinxed myself. LOL!*
Bedtime is a war here, as well. They used to go down so nicely until we took Lizzy out of the crib. Now my little instigator will bug her brother incessantly and he retaliates. I actually have a blog post coming about the exact same thing.
We have the same problem. Mostly with Lily who doesn't want to go to bed because she has soooo much energy and sleeps less than all of us. I've done a few different things to get her to be quite. One that was funny but not exactly responosible was I made her sleep in the bathtub for 15 minutes. She was so uncomfortable and ready for bed at the end of those lonely 15 minutes that she went straight to sleep. If you ever figure out a solution clue me in will you?!
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