How do I get my child to go to sleep?

[Rebecca]

My little boy has a difficult time going to sleep at night. It seems
worse when he has something exciting like school or swimming lessons
the next day. what can I do? It is really frustrating sometimes when
in our house we have all had a very busy day and I just want some
mommy time. Somebody please help!

[dragonlady]

In article >,
(Rebecca) wrote:

> My little boy has a difficult time going to sleep at night. It seems
> worse when he has something exciting like school or swimming lessons
> the next day. what can I do? It is really frustrating sometimes when
> in our house we have all had a very busy day and I just want some
> mommy time. Somebody please help!
>

You don't say how old your son is, which can make a difference.
However, he is obviously not an infant or he wouldn't be excited about
what is going to happen the next day.

Being too excited to sleep is pretty common; heck, I have the same
problem myself sometimes. The one thing I would recommend is NOT trying
to get him to go to sleep. Rather, focus on what it is you really need
and want, which is some time in the evening for yourself to wind down.
Whether or not he is sleeping is irrelevant, but you DO want him to stay
in his room and be quiet after a certain hour -- a not unreasonable
thing for you to want. I'd say if he is having trouble falling asleep,
let him have a bunch of books and a light, so he can read, or color, or
whatever else he can do in his room that is quiet. The rule in our
house was pretty simple: I didn't care what the kids were doing, as
long as we had some time for ourselves in the evening and they weren't
trashing their rooms.

Good luck.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

[Banty]

In article >, Rebecca says...
>
>My little boy has a difficult time going to sleep at night. It seems
>worse when he has something exciting like school or swimming lessons
>the next day. what can I do? It is really frustrating sometimes when
>in our house we have all had a very busy day and I just want some
>mommy time. Somebody please help!
>

First of all, how old is he?

If he's old enough (sounds like it), you ease up a bit and make a transition
between 'evening quiet time' and sleep - let him stay quietly in his room until
he sleeps.

Then he'll learn to get himself to sleep and calm himself, and you can have the
mommy time, too.

Banty

[just me]

"Rebecca" > wrote in message
om...
> My little boy has a difficult time going to sleep at night. It seems
> worse when he has something exciting like school or swimming lessons
> the next day. what can I do? It is really frustrating sometimes when
> in our house we have all had a very busy day and I just want some
> mommy time. Somebody please help!
>

My DS is a live wire at just turning 8 [and was at 2!]. At age 4.5 I
instituted "grown up time", meaning that all children [I have one] must be
in bed by 9 pm, but reading with lights on is allowed until 9;30 pm. Even
now, as he turns 8, this is usually enough to help him unwind.
Occasionally, after lights out, he appears maybe 15 minutes later to tell me
he can't sleep so I let him read another 10 minutes and that *always* turns
the trick. Perhaps your DS would respond to a similar system.

-Aula

[Penny Gaines]

dragonlady wrote in
>:
[snip]
> Being too excited to sleep is pretty common; heck, I have the same
> problem myself sometimes. The one thing I would recommend is NOT trying
> to get him to go to sleep.
[snip]

My mother used to tell me that it didn't matter if I went to sleep, I just
had to lie there and rest.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three