Clark has been giving us a hard time about bedtime in a typical 3 year old way. I need to go potty, I need a drink, climbing into his brother's crib to wake him up, etc... He has been such a good sleeper until the "big boy bed."
It really only took a bribe (ahem), I mean some "positive reinforcement," to help out at bedtimes around here. (Thanks for the idea, Dad.) Besides the excuses, he was doing a pretty good job of keeping himself awake while he was in bed (until 11pm and sometimes later). I don't know how he does it. Put me in a quiet, cool, dark room with a fan and I don't stand a chance.
It wasn't until he decided he wanted to go to bed, with a promise of reward the next day, that we have really had any success. We've been going for 2 nights now without any incidents of bedtime resistance. The power of a lollipop in the eyes of a child. He insisted on an orange one (his favorite color), but settled for a cream soda when I couldn't find orange.
Brucie is enjoying the rewards for good bedtime behavior, too. It's kind of a given since he falls asleep pretty quickly. He ate his lollipop today and about half the stick (well, it was pretty well chewed).
Just in case you were wondering, they still have root beer flavored Dum-dums. For some reason I always remember getting that flavor as a child. Ah, good memories.
Lindi's little girl says, "Daddy, tell me about Jesus" when she wants to get out of going to bed. It works like a charm!
ReplyDeleteHey p.s. I sometimes read this blog and the husband is from jacksonville. do you know him?
http://taza-and-husband.blogspot.com
(don't make fun of me for reading the blog of someone i don't know...i'm not weird!)
pps. is there anyway to shorten the process of leaving comments??? its kind of a marathon right now.
Bribery... I mean, positive reinforcement. What would we do without it? They gave out dum-dums at a lab I went to one time. By the time your dum-dum is done, you results should be in. Made the wait much nicer, so I guess it's not just kids they work for. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked grading tests, they used to give us hard candy to kind of break up the monotony (sitting at a computer screen for 8 hours, reading student essays...it's as exciting as it sounds).
ReplyDeleteOne of the candies they'd bring in was the big bag of Dum-Dums, and those were by far one of the favorites. I remember people sneaking to the candy bowl to pick out their favorite flavor, and taking them all to hoard at their cubicle. (Okay, I'm guilty of this too...they have Cherry Cola Dum-Dums now, and they are yummy.)
A few times, there were fights over the Dum-Dums. You haven't lived until you've seen two grown women arguing over who should get the last coconut Dum-Dum.
Lauren - We don't really know that guy from the blog. Sorry to disappoint. I'll look into making comments easier. I'm new to blogging, so have patience with me.
ReplyDeleteSara - It has worked most nights so far. Just one night that resulted in Dum-dum disappointment the next morning. He wouldn't be a 3-year-old if he wasn't testing his limits, right?
Leanne - It wouldn't be hard imagining myself getting into a fight over a Dum-dum. I don't think it would be coconut though... Something made of chocolate would be even more likely. :)