The Tickle Momster
09-16-2007, 09:44 PM
We've been having major issues with going to bed. Either fighting that it's bedtime, refusing to brush teeth, taking forever to get jammies, etc. Another issue is nights when 1 parent or the other is unavailable. Friday night, dh was working to strip the deck so we could reseal/stain it. The 3 kids cried for about 1.5 hours. I had them in 1 child's room, no toothbrushing, me guarding the door, etc. I finally thought to move them to our room and start a movie. It was AWFUL! The movie did it. It is not my first thought so it took that long for me to consider it. They all wanted daddy!
Dh & I talked yesterday about what to do. We decided to use a temporary reward system to break the cycle. If they can cooperatively go upstairs, get brushed, jammied, pottied and into bed with out whining, crying, complaining, then the next evening we will do something special as a family. Thankfully we succeeded tonight. And tomorrow before bed we will play "hide the crab". I'm thinking after 3 nights we can have a candlelight dinner. Nothing special for food, but they love candle nights. If we can get several nights in a row (7) we will take the kids to play mini - golf.
Dh brought up, what if one child is cooperating but the others aren't. So while it won't count toward going to play mini-golf (we are trying to emphasize the whole teamwork aspect) said child will get a few special minutes of time with mom or dad the next night.
Thoughts? Loopholes? Ideas for special things to do?
Dh & I talked yesterday about what to do. We decided to use a temporary reward system to break the cycle. If they can cooperatively go upstairs, get brushed, jammied, pottied and into bed with out whining, crying, complaining, then the next evening we will do something special as a family. Thankfully we succeeded tonight. And tomorrow before bed we will play "hide the crab". I'm thinking after 3 nights we can have a candlelight dinner. Nothing special for food, but they love candle nights. If we can get several nights in a row (7) we will take the kids to play mini - golf.
Dh brought up, what if one child is cooperating but the others aren't. So while it won't count toward going to play mini-golf (we are trying to emphasize the whole teamwork aspect) said child will get a few special minutes of time with mom or dad the next night.
Thoughts? Loopholes? Ideas for special things to do?