3YO a beast at bedtime

[Anonymous]

Going on for months, my 3 year old is just awful at bedtime. Tantrums, screaming, running out of the room, the whole I want a book/dad/mom/hate mom/hate book game. Routine hasn’t changed. What gives? Young three, January birthday.

We try for lights out at 8, he is usually up by 6:15-6:30. Still naps, though hard to put down then too. Naps for about an hour or 90mins.

He naps at daycare, but hard to put down about half the time.

Would be difficult to manage an earlier bedtime since we come home at 6.

Anything we are missing?

[Anonymous]

Shorter nap and lights out at 730.

[Anonymous]

Toddlers are assholes, that’s what you’re missing.

[Anonymous]

3 year olds are harder than 2 year olds imo. I would say cut the nap but if your kid goes to daycare that’s not an option I assume? At 3.5 my kid was in daycare and bedtime started pushing gone 9 o’clock, Like she was in bed at 8 but legitimately not tired anc not falling asleep til close to 10. I would tell him if if he can get read for her with good behavior by X time then he can watch a 30 min show before he has to go to sleep...... or something similar

[Anonymous]

Really try for an earlier bedtime. Cut corners with dinner and bath time for a week or two and see if bed by 7 or 730 helps.

[Anonymous]

Skip nap. He’s too old.

[Anonymous]

What time is he waking up from nap?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really try for an earlier bedtime. Cut corners with dinner and bath time for a week or two and see if bed by 7 or 730 helps.

This!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Skip nap. He’s too old.

I agree but hard to do this when OPs kid is in daycare. OP this is the main reason we pulled our kid out of daycare right before she turned 4. The afternoon noon was pushing my kids falling asleep time close to 10pm. Once we pulled out of daycare and dropped the nap bedtime became 730pm. Asleep by 745pm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really try for an earlier bedtime. Cut corners with dinner and bath time for a week or two and see if bed by 7 or 730 helps.

This!

Ok not op but mine was waking from nap at 3. No way is a 3 year old going to bed for the night 4 hours after he woke up from nap!

[Anonymous]

Thanks all. OP here. He wakes up from nap at 2 or before.

Not an option to pull from daycare. And probably not an option to skip nap there, though it has been done before in my older kid’s class so a conversation to be had.

[Anonymous]

Our 3-year-old was really difficult in this way too. We tried EVERYTHING. His nighttime escapades got so bad we ended up putting a child proof knob lock on the inside of his door and we gave him a three strikes and we close the door. He always got to three strikes. Would have a huge tantrum when we closed the door, but was asleep within 15 minutes. We always reassured him that as soon as he was in bed, the door was opened. Eventually he got a bit older and better but there’s still a crazy lead up to bed (though he stays put). What we found helped a bit was when DH and I didn’t switch off for portions of his bedtime routine. Now we do the exact bedtime routine we always do with me reading and DH singing for example. Honestly, I found this way worse than potty training which was a complete breeze for DS!