Nighty-night!
(ha ha ha ha…)
Excuse my wishful thinking. As every parent of a big kid knows, the big-kid bed transition is the time they realize you can’t MAKE them go to sleep. You can’t even MAKE them stay in their room.
Since we assembled this bed last Friday, I have been convincing him to stay in the bed using a random and mutually-stressful combination of nursing him to sleep, cuddles, spankings, intimidation, shouting (I’m not proud of it, but there it is) and positive reinforcement (peeking in to “catch him in the act” of actually STAYING in the thing).
Oh, plus we brought up the gate for the door, so at least he can’t get too far ‘till he learns to climb over it. The reason we set up the bed now, by the way, is because he was climbing out of his crib onto the dresser. Rather than put him in that unsafe situation, we decided to abolish the crib once and for all.
Anybody need a crib???
You could try our method... take away one stuffed animal (or other toy that seems to live in the bed) every time you catch him out of the bed. If he's anything like Kali, he'll experience the consequence once or twice, cry bitterly, and never do it again... or at least never let you catch him again!
ReplyDeleteDoesn't work that well with this kid, for so many reasons. #1, his sister is in there with him TELLING him to "go call Abba." #2, he has fifty "favourite" stuffed animals. I could be taking them away all night and he'd still find something to snuggle with. #3, this is the Teflon boy, and everything I think of just seems to roll off... nothing upsets him for long.
ReplyDeleteWith YM & ECH, I used to take away their PILLOWS... and bring them back once they'd been quiet for 5 minutes. I plan to use this strategy again, along with the strategy of spanking Naomi (gently!) when she incites him.
But mostly, the strategy I have to use is "wear 'em out so they'll sleep."