Fighting bed time...

No matter how great our day is together, bed time always ruins it.

They fight, scream (and play sometimes) for over an hour before FINALLY going to sleep. I usually have to put my foot down, and be mean about it...WHICH I HATE DOING!!!

Tonight, I finally told connor he needed to sleep....nudged his back in the lay down motion, and he threw himself down, hitting his head on the headboard!!
I always go to bed feeling so guilty that I have to sometimes yell at them to get them to bed.

Am I the only one? Is it the age?

 

:hug99:
man oh man am I not looking forward to standing in your shoes!

I have no words of wisom, still behind you in the age department, but I surely offer my support. I know it is sooooo lame to be the big-bad-mommy, but if you don't do it no one else will and those beautiful growing boys need thier sleep.

now, if they could just invent a personal massage therapist in a jar...

 

Mine still need to be reminded after being in their beds for a while. We started letting them take colors & paper to bed at night & tell them they have 5 minutes to color. After 5 minutes we tell them time is up. Then they have to go to sleep. It's not perfect, but at least they are doing something calming & not running around. They will usually talk for a while & as long as they are not too loud we leave them alone. Nap time is more of a struggle for us, but I suppose they are getting too old for naps.

 

Micah and Lucas have glow in the dark soft baseballs that they are given at night. They just enjoy looking at them and tossing them up in the air. Do you have some sort of routine with them that allows them to calm down and relax before you leave?

 

Our boys are about the same age as yours and they do the same thing. We also just moved them to toddler beds so they are more tempted to play. We have found that if they aren't tired yet we can't really make them go to sleep. We ease into bedtime by reading with them, singing a song on a Sesame Street CD they have, and maybe do a puzzle or two or dad plays cars with them on the floor for a few minutes. This helps wind them down. When they are tired, they will go to sleep pretty quickly, but when they're not tired they can be awake up to an hour. We let them take a few toys in bed and let them play until they go to sleep. They can't get out of bed, though, and if we hear any monkey business we go in and make them get back in bed. If they don't listen we threaten to take their toys away and that usually works. Good luck!