Sleep Tips

Just two little tips on sleep for your preschoolers and school age kids. The baby stage is tricky  – I might deal with that at some other time.

Every parent gets this from time to time: kids who can’t sleep. There they are standing in your bedroom, “I can’t sleep”. We tried to give them the impression “Hey, no big deal. Everyone has the odd time when they can’t fall off to sleep. Have half a glass of water, go to the toilet and then read until you’re sleepy”. Each of our kids had a bedside lamp and a big stack of books. Rather than barking at them to “Turn that light off!” they could read as late as they wanted to … and it was never that late.  It was so much better that they learnt to solve their own problem, settle themselves down, and realise they didn’t need to involve Mum or Dad.

Here’s a simple idea to help you get an extra couple of minutes snoozing when you have little kids. Before they can tell the time, they often wake up early and come through and disturb you before you are ready to start the day. You love them, but you’d love them more if they would just let you have another half hour in the sack, especially on the weekends.

What we did was use the timer on the stereo – most sound systems have a timer; if not, just use a radio alarm clock. (There’s an iPhone app called Alarm Clock 4 Free that will start to play your music too). We would cue up a favourite bit of music and set it to play really loud. We’d tell the kids, “when you hear the music, run through and jump into bed with us. If you don’t hear the music it’s too early and you have to stay in bed.”  You know what, it worked.

Sleep’s a big topic. For lot’s more topics, check out theparentingplace.com