Here are a few tips to help your evening run smoothly:
- Having your meals planned for the week will reduce the amount of stress during the evening.
- If your child wakes during the night, don’t allow her to sleep in your bed otherwise this will become a habit she will learn to love and you won’t get a good nights sleep meaning you will be miserable and tired the next day. Try very hard to get yourself up straight away and walk her back to bed, once she is in her bed, settle her, give her a cuddle and kiss, say goodnight, then walk away.
- If you are finding your new routine doesn’t work for you change it around abit to suit family. Maybe it suits your family to bath after dinner??
- If your little one is still wetting the bed, give them only half a glass of water during dinner and a quick sip while brushing teeth.
- If your mornings are really busy, lay out clothes for the following day
- Talk to the kids during dinner about their day, ask them what they enjoyed most about today? Ensure that everybody participates. Converssation around the dinner table is one of my favourite things.
- Make the kids new routine fun by making it a game:
- Who can clean their room the fastest?
- Who has the cleanest teeth?
- My favourite is I’ll race you to your bed, I bet I can beat you…they always win, but they love it 🙂
- Occasionally have little prizes to reward them for great work.
- Allow children to take responsibility dressing themselves, brushing their own teeth, wash own dishes etc. They are great habits to learn at a young age.
6 comments
im having trouble with your second point with my twins i had a goodnight with them on sunday night but last nite no good,sometimes i get up and put back to there own bed and other times i dont even know they are there
great advice generally, but I’m sure bed wetting specialists would disagree with the suggestion to restrict water. I know the bed wetting clinic at our children’s hospital tells you that drinking LOTS of water in an important part of learning to stay dry.
with cleaning of rooms… we came across a “house fairy” site.. I had a look on their site, and what I took from that – was the idea to just print out a perpetual award – that has the opportunity to move rooms each week – specified day of the week.. and it goes on the door of the cleanest room… it has become a competition between my eldest kids, but my youngest one gets it at times – though with a little help from me- but she also has to ask for the help.. its kept our rooms cleaner for longer… as they all want the house fairy award, and know its inspected by her each week… such a little incentive, but it worked!
I usually really like your posts – but point 2 about not letting them stay in your bed I disagree with. There are lots of studies that show co-sleeping is beneficial for children’s development, particularly babies and toddlers. Unfortunately parenting is a 24/7 job including at night.
It really is each to their own. I had twins that usually followed each other everywhere and shared a bedroom, no room for 2 babies in my bed. Big cuddles and snuggles in the morning absolutely for sure though 😉