We have had trouble getting #3 to stay in bed. He pops up time after time after time, wanting to go potty, get a drink, one more kiss, his finger hurts, or whatever crazy excuse he can come up with. Based on a friend's suggestion, I decided to implement the penny system. The purpose of the system is to motivate them to stay in bed while teaching them money management and saving skills.
Every night, the boys each receive 5 pennies at bed time. Each time they get out of bed, for any reason, they have to give me 1 penny. If they stay in bed, they get to keep their pennies. At the end of the week, they can save up their pennies and buy something.
Last night was the first night to try it. So far it has not been working too well, especially with #3. I collected a penny from him each time he got out of bed, but he was not sad to give it to me. He soon ran out of pennies so the subsequent times out of bed he got a swat.
It worked a little too well for #2, who was so happy to receive his pennies that he clutched them in his hand and fell asleep with them. However, twice during the middle of the night he woke up, and, unable to find his pennies, cried for 15 minutes because he wanted his pennies.
Now we are on the second night, and once again #3 has exhausted his penny supply. He is hiding out in the hallway as I type this, so as soon as I finish I will take him to bed again.
Does anyone have any other ideas for 3 and 4 year old little boys to stay in bed? I sort of miss the crib days when they could not climb out, and although they may cry for a while, they were in there for the night and would eventually fall asleep. Now that they are mobile, they will run themselves ragged trying to avoid going to sleep, even to the point of being overly tired that they get hyper.
Musings on life with three silly boys - there's never a dull moment!
We did something similar with Princess TD. We used tickets though. At the time, she loved stickers, so we gave her 3 tickets. Each time we came in, we took a ticket. If she had tickets left over in the morning, she got 1 sticker for each ticket. I love the penny idea, however, they may be a little young to get the long term reward concept. It will take quite a while for them to save enough to buy something and by then, I think they may have forgotten what the reward is for. Make sense? I think it might work better for you if there is maybe an instant reward to get it started and then you could progress to the more long term reward.
ReplyDeleteDon't give up yet. It will work, but it will take some time for them to get the concept and understand what you want from them. Hang in there...
My little one has the same revolving door habit. I'm using the Supernanny system I've seen on TV. I tried using Mrs. TD's sticker/coupon system. It didn't work for us. J was just not motivated by that. She would happily hand me over her coupons everytime she got out of bed. I tried taking things away, she would happily lay the animal (blanket, whatever) at her door on her way out of her room. So, recently what I've been doing is the silent treatment. I give her hugs, kisses, I love you, trip to the bathroom, all of the necessities. When she gets up, she knows, mommy does not talk. She gets walked into her room without a hug, a kiss, an I love you or any other request. I ignore all of her requests and cries. I put her in bed and shut the door. We still don't have lots of nights that there is not a single exit. But, I no longer struggle for over an hour. It is very short lived!
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