I wish they’d go to sleep!

Bedtime can be a battleground for babysitters. The kids may have been well behaved and reasonably easy to control all evening but as soon as bedtime is mentioned chaos can ensue!
You need to establish why the suggestion of bedtime is creating such resistance. It may just be that theyve had such a great evening with you that they dont want it to end. In which case good job! If this is the reason, a little bribery comes in handy.

Offering to read a bedtime story and therefore to prolong the fun a little longer - can often get them into their pyjamas and into bed. Make the story as long as you can and read it in a quiet, soothing, fairly monotonous voice. Were aiming to calm them down here so forget interactive or over-stimulating stories.

Last one into bed is a ...

If more than one child is involved in the bedtime rebellion, it is tempting to try and turn it into a race, just to get the little darlings under the covers. But this can backfire. The last child into bed may be upset to be last and the first one in will get horribly overexcited.

A calmer way to achieve the same outcome is to offer to read a story once all the children are in their pyjamas with their teeth brushed. That way, they are more likely to encourage and help each other rather than fight to be the winner.

Whats the routine?

This is where doing your background preparation really pays off. Hopefully, you are babysitting for kids who do have a usual bedtime routine which you will have previously asked Mom or Dad to explain, in detail.

If you look at it from the childs point of view, they have already had a very different evening to their usual so they are probably expecting bedtime to be different too. If you know their routine, well done! Now its just a case of following it and being fairly firm.

If there is no usual routine, which is becoming more common, it will be harder to convince them that it really is bedtime. Again, be gently firm and consistent until they realise theyre not going to win this one.

I want Mommy ...

Bedtime is often the point when the child realises that Mom and Dad really are out for the night and they may become scared or tearful. Reassure them that Mom and Dad are just out having a nice time and they will be back very soon. Again, with smaller children, a little gentle bribery often works.

Help the child to imagine how proud Mom and Dad will be that they went to bed without a fuss and were so good and well behaved. You could make a simple star chart on a piece of paper and for each thing the child does well throughout the evening, put a sticky gold star on the page. The child gets to keep the chart to proudly show Mom and Dad.

Avoid the bedtime battles - Super Babysitting makes it quick and easy to get babysitting advice and tips. To get your free babysitters handbook and first aid book visit the Super Babysitting web site right now!


Technorati tags ... babysitting, childcare, Parenting, Family, babycare, baby sitting.