A picture from August 2008 - when all the kids were in a room together cause we had our friends from Argentina staying with us in the basement. Ok, I am totally grinning ear to ear - I have just reached a major personal and family victory - It is 9:30 pm and ALL my kids are in bed!!!! It might help that Corey wasn't here to tell them stories... You know me, I'm the no-fun Mom who longs for a schedule. At the same time I know that a lot of the precious moments I enjoy with my family come from the chaos of our life. Still, it would be nice if a schedule was in place and the norm. So here we go: I'm setting a 9:00 teeth-brushed/family prayer/scriputre time followed by a "heads on pillows" time at 9:30.
Tonight to get the kids attention for my new game plan, I came into the front room holding and crinkling in my hands the wrappers of 6 fruit snacks with different themes - Sponge Bob for Joe and Ethan, Strawberry Shortcake for Mel, Nemo for Hyrum, Cars for Wes, and Disney Princess for Abi. The crinkling of the wrapper got their attention very quickly, which I already knew would happen from previous experience. As they held out their hands for a treat, I put the snacks in their drawers, and told them the fruit snacks would be there in the morning for the kids that were in bed at 9:30. They paid attention for scriptures, were reverent for prayer, and brushed their teeth quickly, and I sent them downstairs at 9:15. I brushed my teeth and took care of my night time routine, and Wes came upstairs for help getting some sand out of his eyes - those nuggets of dirt had kept hidden from the previous washing of the eyes - that's the risk a child takes for playing in the sandbox with 1 year old cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Wride's house who like to throw dirt. I helped him get that out of his red eyes, took him downstairs to tuck him in, and to my delight and surprise, all kids were asleep (or pretending to be - that works for me!) with their Christmas night lights plugged in and scripture scouts on the CD players. Wow! Fruit snacks do the trick! Atleast they did for tonight - we'll see if I can pull this off more than once, I'll let you know how tomorrow night goes!
9:30 that's a great start but I'd try to get them in bed by 8:30. Do you ever have any time to yourself? That's my whole deal with bedtime, they've got to be in bed so I can do what I want so I try to have them in bed by 8 at Neil's request. If was up to me they'd be in bed by 7:30 but my boys, especially Conner, need a lot of sleep. Good luck! I'm all for bribing. You got to start somewhere. They may do it now for an extrinsic reward but eventually and hopefully it will become an intrinsic reward. Just like potty training. Can't wait for this weekend!
ReplyDeleteI agree, the chaos does bring many the special moments, but a schedule can feel so great too! Nice work. It's always about finding what works for your family, and it looks like you have!
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