Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Bedtime Boy

Shane's learned a new way to protest bedtime: he calls out for "Daddy."

It's cute and heart-wrenching at the same time. 

I can easily ignore a fakey-whine, but a whiny boy who calls for me? It is a lot harder. The boy is changing the rules to the game. It's amazing how clever little children can be to get what they want.

At the moment, the boy is a little spoiled from Grandma and Grandpa's. They would sit with him until he fell asleep (partly out of necessity since the light switches in the room were low enough for him to reach). Shane doesn't want to give that up. He wants me to lay down in his bed until he zonks and to be there in the morning. He's a very social boy, isn't he?

Still, it's not going to happen. All of the books mention how important it is for a child to learn to self-soothe. Thankfully, Shane tends to drop off pretty quickly. He doesn't like going to bed alone, but he'll do it. We have a bunch of night-lights in the room, comfort objects, and some new Lightning McQueen bedsheets to keep it homey. It could be worse. When they were babies, Nana and Pop-Pop had to stick the twins in their room, let them run around (playing or protesting), and then would go back in to relocate them to their beds once they passed out. 

It sounds like Shane is done protesting and sleeping soundly as I finish this. He'll be up and ready to play in the morning as usual!

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