This is how I found Chase the other day in his room at nap time. It’s always interesting to see how he ends up since he is adamant about not getting in bed or having quiet time alone in his room! But he still gets tired so he falls asleep wherever he is.
Chase has been protesting nap time and bed time more than ever since Charlotte was born, and it has been a major test of our patience. I’ve realized that he might not need a nap every day any more…. But since he gets up around 6:30 am every day, I definitely still need a little break after those 6-7 hours of action! People have recommended making him have a “quiet time” in which he can color, read, whatever he wants, just in his room alone. Hm, my question is, how do you achieve this? Well, I’ve had to experiment with various forms of discipline.
Time outs didn’t work in this case because he would just keep getting off the chair and I kept having to put him back on. This is not realistic though because I have a baby now, who can’t be ignored! One day after 2 hours of putting Chase back on the time out chair, I was super exhausted and gave up, and yes, I cried from all the frustration I felt… He is quite a persistent boy, I must say! We also tried a sticker chart and that worked sometimes, but one day he ripped it up and then after he had finally completed the 4-day chart, he seemed to be “over it.”
So then I just resorted to my friend Becky’s suggestion of putting a child lock on the inside of his door. Before you think me an evil mom who relishes locking her child in his room, read on for a moment. He gets to keep his door open during the 1 hour of quiet time as long as he doesn’t scream or come out of his room. If he does, then I close the door. So far, I have been consistent, and it seems to be working. The door doesn’t even get closed very often anymore! Whhew, we’ll see if it continues this way! No more quiet time “battles” please!
