Not to make Jeff feel too bad, but him being gone 4 days for work was incredible. It was our first week with our new schedule and I had high hopes that all would go well. We had prepped the kids that we needed to work as a team and to help out more than usual. The result of Jeff being gone went beyond my highest expectations.
Sam has officially been broken of a really bad, annoying habit. Her inability to stay in bed (after reading her a story, singing her some songs and snuggling with her) was riddled with insanity. She would come out of her room repeatedly with one or all of the following reasons: my eyeballs hurt, my knee hurts, my arm hurts, my hair hurts, it's too light, its too dark, I need to wash my hands, my pillow itches, my pillow's too lumpy, my blankets keep falling off my bed, I can't find pinky, it's too quiet, it's too loud, I'm thirsty, I'm starving, it's too cold, it's too hot, I have a question, I have something to say, and on and on and on. It was enough to drive a person mad.
This had been going on for a ridiculous amount of time. Since Jeff was the main person to put Sam down each night, he would deal with her craziness. I stayed out of it and would completely ignore Sam each and every time she came out of her room. After about 5 or 6 instances, Jeff would get really mad and yell at the top of his lungs for her to stay in her room. At which point, Sam would turn around, run into her room and cry herself to sleep. None of this was ideal. Jeff did his best to be patient and help Sam with whatever issue she was having. Until he couldn't take anymore. Sam never knew at which point Jeff would have enough and explode.
When I knew I was going to have to take over putting Sam down, I decided to put an end to this nonsense, once and for all.
THE FIRST NIGHT: Sam comes out of her room, I tell her she lost TV the next day. The 2nd time Sam came out of her room, I told her she lost the use of her iPad the next day. Sam ran into her room crying and fell asleep.
THE SECOND NIGHT: As I was putting Sam down to bed, I told her she was excellent all day. She definitely deserved tv and her iPad the next day. However, if she came out of her room, I would take each away again. AND, if she managed to stay in her room all night, then I would give her a special surprise the next morning. Sam stayed in her room all night!
THE NEXT MORNING: When Sam woke up, we did a dance of joy and cheered for her being in her room the whole night. I gave her a choice of 4 special treats: 1. A new game for her iPad, 2. $1.00, 3. Frozen yogurt after school, and 4. A small cookie before breakfast. Sam chose a new game for her iPad.
THE THIRD NIGHT: Sam stayed in her room all night!
THE NEXT MORNING: Gave her 4 choices again. She loved it! This time she chose a lollipop.
THE FOURTH NIGHT: Jeff came home and it was up to him to put her down. I begged him to back me up on this and keep it going. He did! I went out with some friends and called in to find out how it went. Sam came out of her room once and he promptly told her she lost tv the next day. That was it and she stayed in her room the rest of the night. Yay!! Sam was definitely testing Jeff to see what he was going to do. Thank G-d Jeff stuck to the program. This will make my life so much easier for when he leaves town again.
THE FIFTH NIGHT AND SO ON: Sam stays in her room and doesn't come out. She knows she can go to the bathroom if needed, but that's it. It is a real pleasure putting her down and we've cut out so much stress and angst not having to deal with a crazy-long extended bedtime routine.
When I offer her a treat in the morning, she tells me what the choices should be. The other day, she added to the list "Be good to mommy and daddy". WOW! Now, that's a treat for me. :)
The other benefit to Jeff being gone, was not having to load or unload the dishwasher -- at all! I managed to go the whole week and not accumulate any dirty dishes. We met friends for dinner, ate on paper plates and kept all food prep to a minimum. It wasn't our healthiest week of dinners, but it was super nice after long days of running around to not prepare a full-blown meal.
Ian was super adorable and kept asking me how I thought it was going. On Monday afternoon at 4:00pm, he gets in the car after school pick-up and says, "Mom, are you doing ok? Did you have a good day? I think we are doing ok with Daddy being gone." The funny thing is, so far nothing was different than if Jeff was working out of his office locally. It was only once we got past the 6:00pm hour that it would be a difference with him out of town.
The next morning, I was running late getting us out the door to meet Ian's bus. I looked at Ian and asked if it would be okay if we went to bus stop #3 instead of our usual #1. He said fine and that gave me another 5 minutes. However, by the time we actually got to the car, it was now 10 minutes later. Ian looked at the time and said, "I don't think we are doing so good today." Hehehehehe.
Jeff stayed in town this week and was able to go to Sam's preschool graduation. I was so happy he could attend this. The next 2 weeks he is back to traveling. We are going to be just fine!
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