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Lights Out!
Getting Your Preschooler to Bed By P. Christine Smith
Three-year-old Cole Pheras isn't allowed any sugar after dinner. He has become accustomed to taking a bath at 7:30 each evening, followed by brushing his teeth, having a glass of water and sitting on the sofa to watch a little TV with Mom, Georgia, and Dad, Mark. "He is usually asleep within 15 to 30 minutes," says Georgia, 33, of San Diego, Calif. "Then Mark carries him to his bed."
Sounds simple, doesn't it? In a perfect world we would prepare our little ones for bed, tuck them safely under the covers in their own rooms, give them a kiss and greet them when the sun rises the next morning. However, parents of preschoolers know we do not live in a perfect world, and each family falls into a pattern that works best for their particular situation.
"Mark and I are very relaxed people, and we don't sweat the small stuff," says Georgia. For the Pheras' it is better and easier to have Cole blissfully drift off to sleep in a serene environment than to battle over bedtime; he falls sound asleep and is placed in his bed, all without a fight.