Does everyone have a night time ritual or routine with their kids?

You know, all the things you have to do before your kid actually goes to sleep.

Stuff like…

Brush their teeth, read them a book, grab a teddy, put them to bed, sing a song, get them a glass of water, tuck them in, change their nappy, sing them another song, get them something to eat, get them another glass of water, tuck them in, slam the door and walk away, get up to them calling out, change their nappy, start pulling out your hair, cry a bit to yourself, slam the door and walk away, then go back and say sorry, kiss them, close the door, jump into bed and then realise you only have 30 minutes of sleep before the next day starts?

Yep!

The above is the story of craziness. But it happens! We are lucky, as Reeve doesn’t carry on too much before bed and through the night, but he definitely has his moments.

Just last night, I think I got up to him around 12 times. Twelve times!!!

That doesn’t happen much these days, so I feel a bit hungover from tiredness this morning (Tiredness hangovers are only just a little bit better than alcohol induced hangovers).

There was nothing wrong (of course), just him calling out “MUM. MUM. MUMMA. MUM”. I would go into check him, “Yes Master. What did you want?” There would be just a mumble back from him, so I would just lay him back down and tuck him in…again.

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After the 8th time of this little scenario, and the clock ticked 1:30am, I had to start pulling the big guns out – not literally guys. Relax.

This was just getting ridiculous. He wasn’t sick. He wasn’t upset. He was just being a 2 year old. So I started to tell him, “Reeve. No calling out unless it’s really, really urgent. Okay? Like really really urgent. The sky has to be falling for you to call out. Okay? Okay?”

“Okay Mum”, a meek reply came back.

So then I obviously felt like Queen Super Bitch from Bitchland. My poor kid just wanted me, and here I am telling him not to call out unless Chicken Little came screaming into his room. ‘THE SKY IS FALLING. THE SKY IS FALLING. SCREAM OUT TO YOUR HOPELESS MOTHER TO COME SAVE YOU, REEVE!’

Chicken Little. A better parent than me.

All kids go through these phases where they will find a way to get out of sleep. Reeves’ Dad is still away, so he has been a bit unsettled at night.

Again, I am lucky that he doesn’t usually ‘play up’ at night, but I am so not used to this ‘getting-up-every-hour’, I just had to have a whinge about it.

My son’s normal night time ritual is:

• Sing the Giggle and Hoot night night song. We slow wave our arms and everything in the air. We have pretend microphones and we sing like Bon Jovi does – emotional and awesome.
• Brush his teeth, while reminiscing about the night night song we just sung.
• Say good night to the moon and stars outside. He loooooves the moon.
• Tuck him into bed and chat about our day together for a couple of minutes.
• Kiss, cuddle, kiss, cuddle, kiss, cuddle, until I say “Okay Reeve, that’s enough mate”.
• Say goodnight and leave his door open at least 3 inches. If that godforsaken door is closed anymore than that, the world will end (according to my son).
• Then just hope for the best that he goes off to sleep with no fuss.

I sometimes could easily lay in bed with Reeve once he is in bed, but I know that he won’t go to sleep if I did that. He would get super excited, jump around and start asking a billion questions/talk my ear off…

“What’s that Mummy?” ~ “I just pop-offed (farted) Mummy…hehehehehehe!” ~ “Mummy. Where’s Daddy?” ~ “I’m hungi (hungry)” ~ “Giggle, giggle, giggle*” *Imagine continuous laughter for the next 2 hours.

So we stick to our night time routine and that seems to work for him.

We understand routines change when something is unsettled at home, or he is not well, or even just as he gets older and wants to change it up. But I think it is important for every child to have some sort of night time routine. Hey, that’s just my opinion though.

Do you have a routine with your kids? Would love to hear any of your end of the day wind downs. Please share in the comments below.

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