Are KILLING me! Ok maybe that is a little dramatic but seriously Terence and I are both so tired. It all started a couple of nights ago when we took the child proof door knob off of Connors door. I know, I know I can hear it now. Gasp! You put a child proof lock on your child’s door? Yes because if we didn’t he would get up in the middle of the night and wander the house which seems dangerous. Anyway we took this thing off because A. we needed it downstairs on the pantry so Corey would not get into it and B. Connor is now potty trained and needs to be able to get out of his room at night to go potty, seems pretty straight forward. Unfortunately chaos at bedtime has been the result.
We say prayers with the boys as usual and then take them up to bed. Corey does his typical cry for about 10 minutes and then he falls asleep. Connor will stay in his room for about 5 minutes and then inevitably come downstairs and tell us he has to go potty. Not wanting to discourage this we of course let him go (although, half the time I don’t believe he really has to). Once he has done that he will try to head for the couch. It’s his way of saying “Hey I’m down here, might as well hang out for a while.” We send him back up to his bed and on the way up he will say something about how he is going to scream in his room or how he doesn’t want to go to be. Either way it unavoidably wakes Corey up. Then we have to tag team to get them both settled back down which can take anywhere from 3 minutes to an hour. Then the cycle starts over again. Two nights ago we were literally up every half hour with one boy or the other the entire night! When I got home from work yesterday both boys were so exhausted from being up all night that Corey had fallen asleep on the family room floor in a pile of blankets and Connor was asleep on the couch with his GG bear.
We were seriously contemplating putting the child door knob back on Connors door last night when it looked like we were going to have a repeat of the previous night. Miraculously, both boys went to sleep on their own by about 8:15 and they stayed asleep! What a relief. Hopefully that was not just a fluke.
The other thing that has been making me CRAZY lately is my kids inability to listen and obey what we are telling/asking them. Connor especially is having a hard time with this. It takes us asking him six or seven times before he will do something. He has to go to time out constantly! Both of my boys are really good kids overall but for whatever reason the last couple of weeks have been really hard for them. I’m not sure what to do. Any advice on what you have done to get your kids to listen to you and do what you ask of them?
Baby #4!
10 years ago
3 comments:
I'm a far from perfect parent so I don't know if I should be giving advice...but stick to bed time! Don't ever give in and just let them stay up or anything. You guys are totally doing it right. Eventually they will go right to bed without crying and it will be awesome! Also if you tell them to do something never give in and let them get away with not doing it. I had to do that with Adam and it was so hard for a couple weeks but now he always does what I ask right away. Good Luck!
sounds like they need to be in separate rooms for a bit. Be tough stand firm. You guys are great parents and have super kids.
Clark doesn't listen and never really has. It is really frustrating and I have no idea what to do to make him listen. I hate going out by myself because he will take off on me but I cant stay home all the time and be a hermit because he needs to learn how to behave in public. Its a vicious cycle.
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