My Homer Simpson Moment of the Day
Caitlin is the queen of prolonging bedtime. She will beg and plead for “one more story mama” and then to say goodnight to her Daddy one more time and then for something to drink or eat until I am thoroughly annoyed. With her being out of daycare for two weeks during the holidays, any pathetic semblance of a bedtime routine that I had in place went to hell in a handbasket. One thing I’ve learned about my children from being enrolled in daycare is that they thrive on schedules, order, and rules. Otherwise it just turns into camp chaos around here and I’m left paddling upstream with one oar.
But it’s a new year and Amelia will be transitioning at some point this year to a big girl bed and I want to get the bedtime routine down like a well orchestrated dinner party thrown by Martha Stewart. So last night I brought out a freebie wall calendar and a sheet of stickers and explained to Caitlin that once we read our two bedtime stories I will tuck her in and then it’s time for her to go to bed by herself, no stalling. The next morning, if she did, indeed, go to bed by herself, she gets a sticker on the appropriate day on the calendar and when she has seven stickers in a row we’ll take a trip down to the dollar store and she can pick out a prize. She seemed absolutely receptive and thrilled with the idea and immediately chose a marker so that she could write in a big green “3″ on the calendar to see where the sticker would go.
It worked like a charm. She was sound asleep well before 9 p.m. I then smacked myself on the forehead and said, “D’OH.”
So, have you had any “D’OH” moments lately?
p.s. Well this was perfect timing, my friend at 1SmartMom just posted about establishing goals with children!
