It is hard to be the mean parent

[ailbhe]

But it's harder, truly, to be the lax one. Poor ole Rob ended up winding Linnea up so much she cried for over an hour, eventually working herself up into such hysterics that we had to get her out of the room so that Emer could sleep.

He has now set himself alarms so that he doesn't miss her bedtime any more. She can read the clock now.

This stuff is dead easy for me. I say (for example) "I know it's not eight o'clock, it's after eight o'clock, quick, now, this minute, go," and I close my ears and harden my heart and so we go.

But Rob feels mean, doing that, and Negotiations Ensue.

Well, perhaps they are more like Peace Talks. No-one actually alters their stated position, and no-one moved forward, and the less powerful parties escalate the levels of passion and violence... Very like peace talks, I think.

Comments

[geekette8.livejournal.com]

We have exactly this scenario in our house, too.

At least mine cannot argue - he doesn't talk...

[kelvix.livejournal.com]

I don't want negotiations. I have to harden my heart. That poor little boy howling at me just a few minutes ago (he was enjoying cuddling me, and he likes me singing the hippopotamus song) will [fingers crossed] be asleep within half an hour - the crying stopped within 5 minutes.

It's so hard to leave him, but he was soo tired - rubbing his little fists into his eyes. If I left it until the 7pm official Bedtime, it would not have helped.

Whether this strategy of bedtime will work after he gets a bed, as opposed to a cot - or when he discovers how to climb out of a cot, I don't know.