How To Master Toddler Bedtimes – Ways To Make A Child’s Bedtime Easy

https://youtu.be/UchwdmktEzM Is bedtime with your toddler a battle every night? Is it time that you just dread because you know you're up against the will of a two-year-old? Don't worry I've got you covered! I'm going to take you through three simple steps that you can take that will help you to overcome bedtime battles and make it actually a peaceful and harmonious experience for you and your family every single evening. So step one to mastering toddler bedtimes is to have a consistent routine. Now I know you might be thinking, "Well, obviously we need a consistent routine..." but there's more to it than that. It sounds simple on the surface but think about this... Is the routine that you're doing with your toddler every single evening happening at the same time for a start, or does it kind of move around? Is it a bit random, depending on how they're behaving? Is it happening at the same time, and are you going through the same steps in the same order? Are you taking them through the exact same process? That might be bathroom, we have a wash, we do our little teeth. Then we go to the bedroom, we have a story, we sing a song and we say, good night, for instance. Do you have set steps that you go through or is it all a bit haphazard? Because even though people often think they have a routine when you've really drilled down into the nitty-gritty of the routine, it's all a little bit haphazard and it's different with mum then it is with dad, or it is with granny. It's so variable that your toddler just doesn't really know where they stand. So stop that from tonight. Look at your routine and ask yourself, "What can we do to make this uber consistent?" It needs to be the same steps in the same order every single evening at the same time, so your toddler knows exactly where they stand. Now that brings me nicely onto point number two. So that they know exactly where they stand, there have to be no extras. They just have what's in that routine. "Oh, but I'm hungry. Can I have a biscuit?" No. "Oh, but just one more story." No. Just stick to your guns with the boundaries. You're not being mean. You're actually lovingly showing them healthy boundaries that will help them to count on you, rely on you and trust you. If they think that you'll change your mind, like the wind, they can't really count on you. And actually, it instils a much greater sense of security in your little one if they can trust you to stick to what you say, even if it isn't quite what they want to hear. So again, with those steps in your routine, don't deviate from them. Don't bend the rules just because, it's got to be the same. The second you show a chink in your armour, the second that you get a slight little deviation that lets them go, "Oh yeah, I got it, they let me have that." That's it. They will try it again and again and again, and they will push and push and get more and more from you. And if they get more from one parent than they do from the other, guess what? They're going to crave that the one that they can manipulate more is the one they want and the one they demand because they know that they can play that around. And again, it delays the time, it makes them overtired and cranky and eventually leads to these battles of will. Toddlers are determined, strong-minded little characters. And actually, it's amazing that they're like this and it's great that they do test the boundaries. It's not a bad thing. They're not misbehaving. It's really intelligent of them to see the testing. "Hmm. If I did this, what will you do?" And if you do have a solid routine and they start to test you, it's because neurologically they're trying to figure out, "So if I change what I'm doing and you're going to change what you're doing, let's find out." And what they need to see is as a result,