The struggle is real. Every night your sweet little child becomes this demanding needy little one! Does this sound familiar?
“I’m thirsty!”
“I’m cold!”
“I’m hot.”
“My eyes aren’t sleepy.”
“I can’t fall asleep.”
Ugh, some nights it felt never-ending. Sometimes it was in the middle of the night, sometimes it was just before bed. No matter what, I can say this… THE STRUGGLE WAS REAL! I decided there had to be a better way.
With this in mind my husband, Kiel, and I decided to start running bedtime drills. You can do this too. It worked great for us. We are all about raising self-sufficient children. We didn’t want to disregard the fact that our girls had needs. We just wanted to teach them how to meet their own needs. So, we started running bedtime drills.
We would have our daughter lay on the floor and pretend it was her bed. Pretend play is fun for children, so she thought it was a great game. We would pretend to tuck her in and say goodnight. Then we would run through the drills. Ready? This is where it gets fun and we teach her how to be self-sufficient.
You’re hot what do you?
- Giggles, as she kicks the blanket off
Oh no, you’re thirsty, what do you do?
- Smiling she grabs her water bottle and takes a drink.
Burr, it just got cold…if only you knew what to do!
- She pulls up her blanket.
You drank too much water and have to go to the bathroom! Are you big enough to go by yourself?
- Then we cheer and give a play-by-play as she pretends to go to the bathroom and put herself back to bed.
Uh oh…you’re hungry…what will you do?
- “I’ll have to wait until the morning,” She tells us, “The kitchen is closed.”
We ran through these same drills night after night. They thought it was fun and it was embedding the motion and the knowledge into their brain until they knew exactly how to meet their own needs. Eventually, they no longer called for us because when they did, they knew what the answer would be…you know what to do. It gave them confidence and ALL of us a great night's sleep.
As she got older, we didn’t run the drills because she had all this down. I did however add in saying your prayers, remembering what you are grateful for, and tapping. These are things she can utilize as an adult to fall asleep in a positive way in any environment. If you don’t know what tapping is, here is a link, I have found it very useful when they are anxious about something or restless in general.
I hope this helps you as much as it has helped us. We have amazing sleepers.
Happy Sleeping!
Looking for a new family tradition? Check out Fairy-Tailed Wish. It is the perfect way to celebrate a birthday and make your child feel loved from the moment they open their eyes.
