Toddler Bedtime Battles

Bedtime can be difficult for little ones. It's hard to stop all the fun of being a kid and being told to go to sleep. For some parents (including myself) when our kids finally go to sleep it can be the best part of the day! Not to say we don't love our little one's, of course we do but those few hours we get at night to ourselves are a hot commodity. With that being said, if you have a procrastinator (like I do) "Mommy fix my blanket" "Mommy I have to go pee pee"  "Mommy I want my ___"  how do you get them to just lay down and sleep?

Simple bedtime routines are so helpful. As children grow they learn from structure and routine. If things are done the same way night after night they come to know what to expect, which makes things much easier. The challenge is creating the routine, sticking to it, and hoping your child EVENTUALLY learns what to expect  to make bedtime a smooth transition.

There will be challenges of course. I mean, what's life with a toddler if they don't challenge you right? And they will. But if they know what to expect things are much easier. So whatever order you do your bedtime routine...bath, pajamas, brush teeth, read in bed, one last trip to bathroom, snuggle in bed with them until YOU fall asleep,  just keep it consistent.

If your little one has fears ease them. Little kids have wild imaginations. Monsters under the bed, the letters of their name on the wall have a creepy shadow, it's too dark and scary. We use a soft blue nightlight in our daughter's room so it's not too scary, this tackled the "it's too dark" fear. As for the monsters, I told her Mommy and Daddy pay a man to come and spray the outside of the house with monster repellent, like the kind we use to get rid of bugs so monsters can never get inside our house. I mean, I can't just tell her monster's don't exist right? She wouldn't believe that anyway. But this story worked! 

With some tough love, persistence, and determination bedtime can be easy. You have to try to set it up to be that way. Keep the faith! It can be done and YOU can make it happen! Now that you have the confidence, go get those kids to bed!

Let us know how you do bedtime in your house? What methods work best? What struggles are you dealing with? How do you over come them or do you just need advice from other Mom's on how to overcome them? Let's face it, they're just kids..we can handle them, right??? Wishing you and your little one a COSIE night's sleep and sweet dreams (at least 6 hours of them)!