Staying in Bed: How do you get yours to do it?

Stuntboy has been a bit of a night owl over the last few weeks. And its amazing when you get out of the habit of waking in the night, how terrible it makes you feel when you have to do it all over again…

He potty trained himself at three pretty much. He then refused to wear nappies in bed at four even though he often didn’t go through the night without needing a wee.

BUT he usually wakes, and asks us to help him go to the loo. And he has done for over a year now.

However, he is five and a half, and we had a feeling he could go through the night, he was just rather pleased with the attention that needing a wee brought him…

Particularly as it gave him a chance to have a mummy cuddle at two in the morning when big sis didn’t get one as she didn’t get up to go for a wee…

“Mummy, I get cuddles in the night and Chatterbox doesn’t. I like that.”

And it’s lovely that he likes mummy cuddles. I like them too. But not necessarily at 2am!

It was only when we thought about it we realised we might be being taken for a ride…

So we brought out the reward charts we have. The ones with a race track on that he can colour in if he progresses well in any given task. Guess what the task was? Staying in bed through the night without getting mummy up to help him go for a wee! We are off to the skate park together when he completes the track. Something he gets to do anyway, but it’s still a goal that motivates him.

One week later, and mummy isn’t holding her eyes open with cocktail sticks anymore.

She still gets her cuddles, and more importantly so does he, but this time they happen at a bit more of a respectable time in the morning!

Is your little one waking in the night? Why not nip to our store and try one of our track based behaviour charts. They work for us!

Image above courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!

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