My four year old step daughter is with us three nights out of the week. If all goes well over the next couple of months, we'll have her four nights a week. We've set her bedtime at 9pm and she usually manages to stay up until around 11pm which is WAY too late. It hasn't been too much of a problem since she's been in afternoon preschool. Next year, she will have to be at school by 7:50 am and since her school is a half hour drive from us, means she'll need to be awake by 6:30 at the latest. Does anyone have any advice on how to change her bedtime? To complicate matters, when she's with her mom, she's either at her aunts one bedroom apartment with eight other people or sleeping in an old neighbors closet with her mom and mom's boyfriend and baby sister. (I'm not exaggerating and no, we can't use the fact that she doesn't have a consistent place to sleep to change custody. We've tried.) Mom will not communicate with us or work with us on bedtime issues or anything else (it's to the point where we don't have a contact number for her and will probably have to hold her in contempt to get one.) I would like to start putting her to bed around 7:30pm each night so I know she gets a good nights sleep but if the nights shes with her mom, she's up until 11pm, I don't know if I'd just be fighting a losing battle. Help?4 year old bedtime 2 houses?9 pm is way too late for a four year old...but I do see that you have not had it easy with the poor kid! WHat a way for her to live....all those people when she is with her Mom! My 4 year old goes to bed at 7.00 pm every night and sleeps till 7.00am....they need 12 hours at that age....in the summer I let her stay up till around 8.30 sometimes....I think you'll just have to start a new routine....try giving her a bath at around 6.00pm, then getting her into p.j.s then having a story in her room...then put her in bed, turn out the light and go. She may stay awake for a while....but if the room is dark and you don't engage in conversation when she calls you, she will go to sleep...obviously if she is upset you have to go and see her...but don't let her get out of bed. At 4 they are growing and need a LOT of energy to grow...its mostly done at night. If I were you I would try to get full custody...poor kid!4 year old bedtime 2 houses?wow, what a mes.
i know i wont be popular, but there is a kind of sleeping pill..that is safe for children.
Its is all natural.
What we did is told our daugthter it was itchy medicine..
We were able to use it for like a week and didnt have any need for it after that.
But with your unstable circumstance, i might suggest that on really bad nights.
Here is a link to the company, i have used may different things from them and i love them.
http://www.hylands.com/products/calms4ki4 year old bedtime 2 houses?Well, Like my step brother just turned 5 , so we started training him to sleep around 8 o clock , over the summer. And now hes been starting to get tired around 7:30 , so maybe you should try it , because Your most likely to get her 4 nights of 5 ....
:)4 year old bedtime 2 houses?Gradually is the key - peel it back five minutes or so a night, in two weeks it'll be an hour earlier. You can't 'make' her sleep, but you can rule that she has to be in bed - reading/looking at picture books quietly is fine.
Make going to bed nice for her - time for a story, time for a cuddle, then some quiet time on her own. Your house gets to be the happy sane island of sensibleness in her life. Nothing you can do about her 'other' house, but kids cope pretty well with different sets of rules in different houses.4 year old bedtime 2 houses?I think if you couldn't change custody of this obviously mistreated child of a mother who is obviously unfit then you had a crappy lawyer. My brother was able to prove his ex wife unfit when she had custody of their son and she was basically %26quot;homeless%26quot; Both her and the baby lived with friends in an overcrowded apartment...they slept in the bath tub. But that is beside the point (although I'd go back to court until something was done I wouldn't give up on the child). Since mom isn't going to be commutative or consistent there really is nothing to do because unless the mother's life style changes there will be problems. and they will get worse as the child gets older. If it were me I would continue fighting for this little guy...But it's not up to me.4 year old bedtime 2 houses?Set a bed time routine and stick to it. Even if she does not have the routine on her other nights, she will learn that when she is at your house, she goes by that bedtime. My sister and BIL have a similar custody arrangement (and problems). It took awhile, but my niece knows that there are rules she follows at her dad's house and things she does at her mom's house.
On a side note, definitely keeping good records about mom's inability to take care of her. And keep pursuing other custody arrangements.
