Monkey, it appears, has decided that staying in bed is for losers and that what all the cool four-year-olds are doing is getting out of bed at least four times after they have been put in bed for the night.
Cunningly, he has worked out that if he asks for water or to go to the toilet that generally he will get a better response than if he just wanders out for no apparent reason. A little bit of me, begrudgingly, gives him credit for being clever enough to work this out. The rest of me, however, just wants to scream.
Don't get me wrong, I love my child. I'm a work at home mum for that very reason. But, after a certain time of the day I do like to get rid of him. I like to be able to leave hot drinks on the floor without fear they will get knocked over, I like to watch television programmes that don't involve colourful cartoon characters, I like to be able to talk to my husband about grown up stuff without having to try to explain everything to a pre-schooler as I go along, and I like to be able to work without my train of thought being interrupted by a Lego emergency.
Up until a month or so ago, Monkey would go to bed, get tucked in and drift happily off to sleep. Occasionally he would need to go to the toilet and occasionally he would wake up during the night with an issue, but in the main he would go to bed and I wouldn't see him for around 12 hours.
Now, we get at least two usually more visits in the hour after he has gone to bed. Sometimes he yells out for us, other times he just gets out of bed and wanders into the living room. It normally takes at least five minutes to get him back to bed each time. Sometimes he combines it with waking up at 2am with another problem and dragging me out of bed.
Currently I look something like this due to being disturbed and lack of sleep.....
I've tried everything - being nice, being nasty, not talking when I take him back to bed, taking away privileges. And now I am out of ideas. I guess I'm just going to have to ride it out, but any suggestions will be gratefully received.
If you have been through this tell me how you dealt with it. If you don't have any suggestions then, please just tell me that it will stop eventually, and I'll be able to watch rubbish reality tv shows in peace again soon.
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