It's the most wonderful time... of the day.

You know the tune...



Unfortunately, the "wonderful time" doesn't actually begin at bedtime. Oh-ho-ho-no! Bedtime is when the most heinous parental torture begins and stretches into eternity! But if you start your routine at 7 (I don't know about you, but an intolerance for all-things-children takes hold of me around 7pm), the kids could potentially be asleep by 10. And at 10, you can enjoy 5 high-quality minutes/wonderful time with your husband to remind you both of why you love each other so much. Doing special things like, brushing your teeth, popping in your retainer and kissing your prince g'night because he has to get up in 6 hours for work.

I don't really like bedtime.

But! it has gotten better. I made "GO TO BED!" checklists a couple years ago once I was sure both girls could read well enough. I laminated them, punched holes, ran some ribbon through them, and made my girls wear their checklist necklaces until they checked off everything on the list with a dry erase marker (kids love dry erase markers).

After a few weeks, the girls knew what they needed to do. They didn't have to ask me so many obvious questions. They didn't have to give me a play-by-play. They just knew the drill and did it. So, once they were proficient, and after some shameless begging on their part, I let them go necklace-less through bedtime. But they still hang in their closet (the checklists, not the girls) as a reminder that I can and will use them if necessary.

Here's a poem:

Sometimes children go to bed.
But then they get up.
You send them back to bed.
And they get up again...
There's an app for that.
Just kidding! but I do have another method I use, called "THE STOOL"

(It looked like a poem :)