how do you deal with bed tantrums?

[divadexie]

Do your kids have bedtime tantrums, and how do you sort it? Mine were getting out of control so I had to think of something that worked really well...

Last year, my son started having Huge tantrums at bed time. It always ended up both us getting stressed and it wasn't fun.
He was also having a fuss some days a week (the days he didnt have nursery and OH left without him).

So I decided to make him a calendar, he helped me decide on colours and pictures, I had a picture of a car on the days OH works, and a pic of a house (he picked) on the days he had nursery. Explained that the day there was only nursery, it was after lunch, and if there was only daddys car it meant he stayed home.

I also put on the pic of the xmas tree, santa etc so he could see it iwas still 'lots of sleeps' and he could see what was tomorrow.

Then the rules was, if he got his jammies on and into bed with no fuss, he got to pick a sticker to cover up today. If he tantrummed or fussed, I drew a cross over the day with my pen.

There were no more fusses in the mornings as he could see what happened the next day easily with the days been marked off.

I started the calendar half way through november, and it ended when he went to his grannys after xmas.


I had planned to make another one, but having the calendar up for that short time has completely eliminated bed time and morning tantrums!

The next thing we have to tackle is taking aaages to get his jammies on (he will not ask for help either) so I think I need to go and get a timer, and if his jammies r not on when it runs out, no story or something.

 

[suzib76]

how old is he hun?

we never had tantrums as such at bedtime but the issue with taking ages to get pj's on i can relate to completely

jack is nearly 7 and he takes forever to get dressed, undressed etc

in fact even now some mornings i have to dress him for school as if i dont we could be late - but im guessing he is older than your lo, i have not found anything that makes him move any quicker im afraid - its just who jack is

 

[Amy_T]

Oooh this is a good idea - we don't have issues with bed time but have serious issues some mornings getting ready for nursery. Might be able to adapt this somehow, although Grace knows what's happening each morning she is often slow to get ready, wants to choose her own clothes and get dressed herself which is fine IF she does it when I ask!

 

[divadexie]

He will be 5 in june.
He has this really awkward streak... I was (and still am!) a very awkward person and his was Really awkward and totaly stubborn as a child! Wonder where he gets it from hahaha.

God I dunno what I'll do when he starts school after the summer to get him to hurry up! Mind you his rooms not that warm in the morning he usualy throws jeans and a tchirt on before coming down... but if we're going somewhere I have to get him to leave jammies on because the clothes Will get coco pops down them.. jammies don't! Lol!

I guess different kids will have different stuff that works for them though, my friends wee boy doesn't do stickers and he likes to peel them off! Lol. My son loves the sticker rewards though, so I keep them for when I really need them

 

[divadexie]

He will be 5 in june.
He has this really awkward streak... I was (and still am!) a very awkward person and his was Really awkward and totaly stubborn as a child! Wonder where he gets it from hahaha.

God I dunno what I'll do when he starts school after the summer to get him to hurry up! Mind you his rooms not that warm in the morning he usualy throws jeans and a tchirt on before coming down... but if we're going somewhere I have to get him to leave jammies on because the clothes Will get coco pops down them.. jammies don't! Lol!

I guess different kids will have different stuff that works for them though, my friends wee boy doesn't do stickers and he likes to peel them off! Lol. My son loves the sticker rewards though, so I keep them for when I really need them