I want my Mommy!

[judecorp]

You know, I have fun when I'm babysitting, all the way up until it's time for bed. Then it is just SO exhausting.

E will just not go to sleep! She follows the whole bedtime routine perfectly - potty, pajamas, toothbrushing, two books... then all hell breaks loose. She just Will. Not. Sleep. She lays there, eyes wide, telling me she misses Mommy 873278723957 times. (And I know she misses Mommy, and I feel bad that she misses Mommy, but really, what can I do about it?)

I've tried almost everything... from cuddling and trying to make her feel better to explaining that Mommy will be home soon to ignoring her after the first couple of times to saying, "Shhh, time for sleep, no more talking" a million times to laying in bed next to her and reading a book. Sometimes she falls asleep eventually (bedtime is at 8 and the moms come home between 10 and 10:30 usually) and sometimes she is still awake when they get home.

It's just so exhausting. In fact, I'm now dreading going over there because I don't want another 2 hours of "I want my Mommy" when there isn't a dang thing I can do to help. It's not like I can mysteriously make Mommy come home, you know? (I tell them this is going on, that's really the best I can do.) It becomes so tedious and last week I really felt myself becoming irritated.

I need to think of another strategy, and quick, because I'm not up for that tonight.

Comments

[fukumen.livejournal.com]

My parents didn't have very pleasant ways of making me go to bed if I was resistant. I learned not to go to bed punctually but rather to pretend that I did and then read under the covers with a flashlight or an unscrewed lamp fixture until 3 in the morning.


My grandmother, on the other hand, would put what I now realize was probably around two shots of whiskey in my tea or whatever I was drinking around bedtime. Of course, she would occasionally put that amount in my pancakes in the morning, if she made pancakes, so it didn't always have soporific intent. (Isn't that an awesome word?) My grandmother was awesome for many reasons, which is probably why she's dead.

Failing drugging your charge, the policy I always had with that age in my babysitting days was to exhaust the hell out of them shortly before bedtime. While they may appear to be invulnerable to conventional weapons, kids that age do actually run out of energy eventually- they'll just try not to let on for as long as possible.

It's also a LOT better to have them try to read to you, if they're at all able, or read a picture book- eye fatigue is still the quickest way to get a person of any age to get to sleep.

[fukumen.livejournal.com]

I just realized that, in the interest of respecting my late grandmother, I should amend the spelling of "whiskey" to the Irish "whisky." My grandmother probably wouldn't have corrected me if I'd spelled it "feilsjrwe," of course, but that sort of thing will get your ass kicked in the wrong company.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

We do read books before bed. She's not reading yet, and she's not really into looking at picture books on her own. (She's much more of a pretend play kind of kid, who will make her stuffed animals talk to each other or imagine scenarios in her head, which unfortunately is much more likely to keep her awake.)

I wish I could slip her some booze sometimes. Yeah, maybe that's what I''ll do. That will make me the best babysitter ever!! ;)