My three chitlins (4, 3, and 18 mo.) can be a pain in the rear when it comes to bedtime. The mere mention of the word turns turns the older kids from tired, relaxed, calm sweeties into hell-raising, loud, obnoxious little demons. I like to call this state of being before bed and after dinner “the crazies.” Unfortunately, the crazies seem to be a last-ditch effort to cause as much trouble as humanly possible.
When each was little, we established a bedtime routine that consists of dinner, quiet playtime (while the parents clean), pajamas, books, potty, bed, kisses/hugs/song, eyes closed. Books and websites said promised it would help bedtime go smoothly. Either they all lied, or I’m just mostly a horrible parent who can’t control her children (my ego says the former). After bedtime is complete, there are the attempts at staying up, including “I have to go to the bathroom,” “I need a drink,” “I want to sit next to daddy quietly on the couch,” and my favorite, “I can’t sleep,” which usually happen in rapid succession.
All I ever want at 7:30 or 8 pm is to have some quiet and watch a show or two (on crazy weekend nights, we try to get a whole movie in) with my husband before we go to bed. One night, in a moment of my-kids-HAVE-to-go-to-bed-or-my-head-will explode, I decided to give the ol’ sticker chart a shot.
I made up a Super Sleeper Sticker Chart for each with a favorite character, and told them when they got seven stickers (one for each night they didn’t get up), they would get a treat of their choice. We made Saturday our treat day, they chose ice cream for their goal, and we were gonna blow the sticker chart theory out of the water!
It worked from day 1! Of course, our three-year-old has given us a few rough nights, but the threat of not getting a sticker (or worse, losing one!) turns it around pretty quickly. It’s amazing what the promise of a Saturday ice cream treat will invoke from preschoolers.
I’ll be darned if they haven’t earned an ice cream treat for five or six weeks now. Sometimes they forget about the sticker chart and a few days go by before they remember their stickers, but we always get ice cream if we’ve had a good week.
Want to try one of our Super Sleeper Sticker Charts? Click on the pics below to get one and please keep in mind that I am NOT a highly experienced graphic artist. I know about enough to get by, so no complaining about the quality of the charts. I do what I can, and the kids won’t care. :)
Barring any snags, I'll be making more and adding them as I can. If you have a request, leave a comment and I will see what I can do!
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