Saturday, November 15, 2008
Super Nanny.... I need you!
I'm sure many of you are familiar with Jo from the show Super Nanny. If not, the show is based upon families who are having trouble raising their kids. Jo a.k.a. "Super Nanny" goes into their home and stays with them for a week. The first day she watches the bahavior of the children as well as the parents. Usually the parents are the ones enabling their children to act out or take advantage of the situation to get what they want. The rest of the week she spends her time educating the parents as well as the children on how to change the behavior. In the end they become a 'happy normal family'.
I know my family is far from horrible, I feel a little guilty for posting this. However, I need some help.
Ever since we moved, Reagan has not been able to keep a normal routine. If I am lucky she will fall asleep for the night around midnight. Most nights lately it has been much later than that, 2 or 3am. Its killing me especially being prego I'm even more tired. Trever is pretty good at staying up with her when he's home. He works graveyards though so I am on my own.
We tried taking away her naps, but that almost has made it worse. The other night I thought she was ready to go down for the night, so I let her fall asleep at 10. I think 10 is a good bed time for her. Anyway she slept till 11:30 and was up the rest of the night. I have attempted to get her up early in the morning, but when the time comes, I'm still so exhausted from the night before that I can't even get myself up.
She has also turned into a couch potato. It breaks my heart that she would rather watch Dora than go to the park and play. Then when we do go to the park, she plays Dora. It drives me crazy!
I know I'm the one who's enabling her, but I don't know how to fix it. I need to fix this and other problems before this new baby comes. I need help. Does anyone have some advice they can give me or a book to recommend?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Sounds rough! One thing that I do with my girls is the bedtime routine. We sing a song, read our scriptures, say family prayer, brush teeth, personal prayers, then Daddy reads them a story,a little drink, and then finally I sing them a song. This whole routine probably takes 20 minutes by the time we are done. Sometimes it is a pain but the benefit is the girls know that bedtime is coming and what to expect. Even after we go through this and they still are not tired enough to fall asleep they KNOW that there is NO getting out of bed!!! They can sing, look at stories or talk but NO getting out of bed. This way they eventually fall asleep when they are ready and I still can have some time to decompress before going to bed myself.
Good Luck!
Sorry for the super long post!
Toddlers can be so stubborn! We had a lot of trouble getting Kennidee to stay in her bed when she was two also. I had a friend who gave me this idea from a book: We first did a bedtime/naptime routine just like your friend above does. Then I left the door open a crack and turned out the light. If she came out, I said, "Time to sleep honey" and I would immediately place her in her bed saying nothing else. If she came out again, I again said," Time for sleep" and placed her in bed. Every other time she came out after that I didn't make eye contact or say anything. I just gently placed her back in bed. I am so happy to say that it worked! But it was definitely NOT easy! The first few nights, she stayed in bed, even during naptime. But then for about two weeks after that, I had to put her back in bed hundreds of times a night- not even kidding. Sometimes it would take me two hours before she would finally give up and stay in her room. It took a lot not to lose my temper. It was miserable for a month or so, but JT helped me by switching off with me. It might sound ridiculous, but we had already tried EVERYTHING else we could think of before this. Now she stays in bed really well and I also think it kind of helped "lay down the law" with her. I am so glad that I stuck to my guns and didn't let her run our household. She knows what we expect now. And every kid is different. Ryker hasn't had any trouble at all staying in his room. I can't believe it. I think he's tried to get out of his bed about three times- ever! If I would have had him first I might have thought I was such a good little mom. Ha! He just has a more easy-going personality than my "fireball" Kenni. I have learned never to hesitate to ask for help and try to fix a problem. Hope this helps! You are a good mom and Reagan loves you! Gotta love motherhood . . .
You are not a bad mom. I just wanted to start off with that. It is so hard to deal with this type of stuff when yor pregnant. My kids watched way too much t.v. when I was pregnant with Jenna. I agree with both of their advice. But I don't feel bad if you feel too overwhelmed. Doing it by yourself, when trever is at work has got to be hard. If you do try it, just remember that when she gets up in the middle of the night, do the same thing. Just put her back in bed and don't say anything. Remember to nap when she naps or see if she can play with a friend so you can nap. Good luck!
I didn't know you guys were pregnant again, CONGRATS! That is awesome.
A couple books I would reccomend is "The baby Wisperer for toddlers" The baby whisperer volume one would even be great for your new little one on the way. Also "Positive Discipline." These are two I like and have helped me immensely in mothering. Being a mom is challenging! Hang in there.
Hey Megan,
First off thank kyou sooo much for your kind words towards my sister. i appreciate all the comments.
Second I heard of this book called SCREAM FREE PARENTING by HAL RUNKEL. he gives a lot of great advice that always makes sense to me. Once a week he comes onto the 97.1 ZHT morning zoo and takes calles from listeners and helps them. Myabe give that a try!! i hope it gets better soon, and I hope the pregnancy is going well for you. Love you guys and miss you!
Post a Comment