3.5 year old twins messing about at bedtime advice needed......

Hi there, ive just joined so not familiar with this site but deperate for advise. I have 3.5 year boy/girl twins who have been in seperate rooms since 18 months. Every couple of weeks they both decided to play up after putting to bed and mess about till 11ish at night. My charlie jumps over his gate into his sisters room and basically wreck the place... they pull down the blind, dismantle the bed, its a wooden toddler bed and the take of matress and pull apart the slates then push the bed frame up against the wall and use it as a climbing frame...... they then decide to strip naked and wee/poo on the floor or whereever they feel like it!!!!!! Its usually one of them thats not tired and eggs the other one on...... its now starting to happen alot more often and last week it happened for 3 nights on the trott and by this time they are well and truly sleep deprived and are little horrors in the daytime to say the least...... i have just started a 10 day reward chart which didn't go too well to begin with but am perservering with it and see what happens..... i have tried all the obvious like taking things out of thier rooms...... take fav toys/teddies away...... their diet is fine, haven't tried any thing new, to be honest im so tired of it myself i really don't know what to do.

We will be getting new divan beds and hoping a new duvet cover will help but in the meantime i really don't know what to do. Bedtime is calm but if i bath them before bedtime they seem to get full of energy and start running up and down the house so that doesn't usually work, so i bath them after dinner and then back downstairs for calming period and puzzles with milk and a small snack then back up to bed for teeth brushing, story and bed.

I would really appreciate any advise or tips anyone can share.

Thanks you
Chris

 

:welcome: My B/B twins are just about the same age, and I am having the same issues as you! However, mine share a room, so maybe my boys have a headstart on the mayhem they create! :wacko:

Since I am going through the same problems, I really have no advice. Mine were in regular twin beds, but yesterday I dismantled them and now they only have the mattresses and a blanket to sleep on. They also have no toys in their room as they used the toys to be more destructive.

Just so you don't feel so alone, or like it's just your kids, here are a few of the things my boys have done since we put them in twin beds:
*took apart the window hardware, now you can't open or shut it
*took off the screen of the window - we put it away, so there is no screen anymore
*completely destroyed the blinds on the window
*scaled the shelves in the closet to the top shelf and layed there, thinking it was funny - we had to remove the bottom shelf so they can't do this anymore
*taken their mattresses off the bed umpteen times to create a "water slide" - can't do this anymore because we took out the bed frames
*created poop art all over themselves and their room - no ideas on how to stop this, but I did make them help clean up the last time; we'll see if that makes a difference
*ripped their books to shreds because they liked the "snow" the torn paper created - we don't allow them to keep books in their room anymore
*used toys to climb onto so they could reach the "off limit" stuff on their bedroom shelves (vaseline, powder, lotion, etc) - we don't allow climbable toys in their room anymore
*used longish toys to get same items off their bedroom shelves (see above) - we don't allow toys that can be used in this way in their room any longer
*when they got the vaseline and powder off the shelves, they used it on each other, their beds, and the carpet and looked like white ghosts by the time they were done - we had to have the carpets professionally cleaned after this stunt

Gosh, I can't think of anything else, but I'm sure there is more. I actually posted about this same problem a few days ago. I'll be interested in seeing what kinds of suggestions you get.

I don't mind letting them play together, but like yours, it seems to be neverending. They don't just want to play for 20-30 minutes then fall asleep. They will go for hours if we let them (we tried this, it didn't work!). We are also dealing with sleep deprived kids during the day with lots of meltdowns. I have a feeling it is a stage we're just going to have to grit our teeth through. Good luck!

 

OMG!!!!!!!! and i thought my two were bad.......... in a sort of funny way i am glad to hear there is others out there like my two!!!!!!!!! I really thought it was just mine, i have 2 lots of friends both with twins and they have never done anything like mine or yours!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last couple of nights they have been fine altho Charlie (who is still very tired, black under eyes!!) is a little restless so i have been lying on the floor next to him to wait till he sleeps which is only about 5 mins or so. I am probably making a rod for my own back but at the moment i really need to get their sleep back on track and then deal with any other issues later!!! Isabella settles herself really well so i think i just need to keep them apart and get one off to sleep first.

Would still very much like to hear about others

Chris

 

I just wanted to comment on your reward chart, which I think is a fantastic idea. However, I think 10 days is entirely too long for little ones. How about making your chart five days or even three so they can see rewards sooner. I think making them wait so long will counteract what you are doing.

 

thanks rachel for your reply, i did actually think whether 10 days is too long and to be honest i don't really think theyve grasped the whole '10 days' thing!! but because they had started to mess about once a week i wanted to try and go over the week period if you know what i mean !! I may reduce it to 5 days and see how we go...... they ask about their reward every day now so im glad they are taking note of it in one way or another!!!!!!

Chris

 

Frustrating isn't it? Mine are just at this age and I find that 3 1/2 is a VERY challenging time overall.

Good Luck!!!