Bringing children to bed - sleeping - our 1000 routes

Hello… Once again there is a contribution from our “Snapped up” section… A constantly burgeoning topic is surely “bringing children to bed” & "Sleep". Here too there are 1000 ways and possibilities, how one can accomplish this and tackle it and how the corresponding children deal with it, accept it or even pretend. Some parents always put their children around "point", are otherwise extremely structured in their everyday life, leave nothing to chance, have fixed times and rules for everything. Others are very "laissez-faire" and have no clear rules, rituals or structures. You decide everything completely spontaneously, let your child rest for an hour at 5:30 p.m. and are more or less surprised that your baby will not be able to sleep in the evening.

Rituals related to “Kbring indians to bed "

We personally try to achieve a balanced mix … Basically, we already have structure in our workflow – however, no world breaks down here if the "bedtime" varies by a quarter to half an hour. However, what is “sacred” to us is ours rituals in relation to "bedding children". We attach great importance to the children being one nice end of the day experience. By this we mean, for example, that the children are given a certain “calmness” – we try, Ms. Brausel and Mr. Müppi, never to get stressed & annoyed just "to be processed".

Our evening ritual – our 1000 ways

The program starts with us that we all enter the upper floor together. We turn into the bathroom – there starts the minimal "beauty program" for the night. A small toilet for Ms. Brausel, brushing teeth and washing, of course, then for both kids. The two lovingly furnished children’s rooms are also located on this floor. These are entered, we lower the blinds and turn on a cozy light. Both children are lucky and are the proud owners of a projection lamp that turns slowly and throws a kind of "starry sky" on the ceiling and walls.

In the Advent and Christmas season, Ms. Brausel has a very simple, small, red seesaw on her doll kitchen – this also attunes her in a special way to the evening ritual. In "cozy" light, the two magic mice are then prepared for the night – Mr. Müppi is given a fresh diaper, both get on their pajamas, Mr. Müppi crumbles into his sleeping bag, Ms. Brausel may also get rid of her hair accessories, her crown and self-made wood bead jewelry.

Our children are eager to read

Since Mr. Müppi is somewhat handicapped due to the sleeping bag situation, Ms. Brausel takes the trip and goes to his room. Both of them are now crouching in his bed, waiting eagerly for one of us to go to the rule that is full of magical children’s and picture books. Sometimes we surprise the children, or they express a wish in advance – depending on the season, we read something wintery, Christmas, Easter … there are stories about Santa Claus, Christ Child, Easter Bunny and Co. –

Of course, we also have tons of neutral books. Bedtime stories, stories about monsters, classics such as “Hungry caterpillar“… Ms. Brausel guards a considerable treasure trove of Conni books. We also have hidden object books or books on the subjects: cars, construction sites, fire brigades, police, zoos, kindergartens and many more. The children are really looking forward to this ritual and event. You love your "Lesestunde“With dad or mom in the evening. The children sit in Müppi’s little bed full of anticipation and listen intently. They listen to every word, every now and then they anticipate the punch line in well-known books, they look at the beautiful pictures of the stories, discover things presented in the story, name them eagerly or simply listen to them with concentration and fascination.

The rest of the bedtime ritual

After reading together, Ms. Brausel lovingly says goodbye to Mr. Müppi and snuggles into her own large bed. It feels like there are 20 cuddly toys in it – and this is only a fraction of the entire team that houses them. One of us accompanies Ms. Brausel, the other stays with Mr. Müppi – here we try to swap night after night so that everyone experiences / carries out the rest of the bedtime ritual with mom and sometimes with dad. We personally pray with or for our children – the same short prayer every evening. "Hold good god to me – today and every day – hold hands over me, whatever may come – Amen"

Then we put out the light and start an age-appropriate children’s radio play CD. On this tour the children fall asleep quickly, balanced and we think very satisfied.

Constant discussions – going to bed is horror …

With us it is really often the case that the children arrive on their own – say at 7:30 p.m. and ask themselves "We can go to bed? Can we now read up and read history and listen to CD XY afterwards? Oh please !? “Acquaintances, family and friends who experience this here, marvel at building blocks and sometimes become a little jealous… What are you good at – madness that they want to go to bed voluntarily and so gladly… We have with our constant discussions – going to bed is horror… We can do all of this about our children and the topic “Children bed " & "Sleep“Absolutely not claim.

However we do consistently chosen this path, started very early to make a real ritual out of it, to bring in peace, to read aloud, to create comfort and that every evening, no matter how listless and exhausted, how tired and unmotivated we were so many evenings. And honestly – in our case, it really pays off. We can with a few exceptions (for example child sick – then ours don’t always sleep according to plan &# 128522;) spend every evening together on the couch and watch a movie from 8:15 p.m., or sit comfortably on the balcony and let the mild summer evening fade away, or especially in autumn and winter to celebrate a game night instead of watching TV.

Mr. Müppis nap

Incidentally, I am also Mr Müppis Afternoon nap a bit "sacred". I also attach great importance to the fact that he still does this. Unfortunately, between 12:00 and 15:00, I can’t be anywhere else than at home. But it is not bad, because I have a relaxed and cheerful child after taking a nap and the more beautiful mine are To meet, Appointments, appointments from 3:00 p.m. He only gets his comfortable outfit for the afternoon nap, I adjust the roller blind so that a few slits allow daylight to enter the room (in order to create a differentiation from the night) and start a suitable one Radio Play CD.

Our overnight guests were "flabbergasted" and we too ….

Incidentally, we already had overnight guests who were completely "flabbergasted", that in the evening you can still read something nice, prayed briefly that mom and dad were present, that everything was orderly and quiet. On the one hand, it made us proud to hear the following sentences, but on the other hand it made us feel very sad, because didn’t every child deserve to be peacefully laid down? "But it’s cozy with the dark light – I don’t have something like that" – "Wow, but you have a lot of great books – I wish somebody would do it with me" "Do you both always go up and put the kids – but my friend Frau Brausel has a good time – my dad mostly only says good night and mom puts me down and she doesn’t feel like reading anymore, because dad is already lying down on the sofa and wants to watch TV ”…

Every child deserves to take the time

The answer to the last one question is definitely for us YES. Every child deserves to take time no matter how stressful the day was, how flat, listless and tired you are right now. Give your children this few minutes of attention in the evening – read to them, review the day, listen to them or tell yourself what you enjoyed and found great if you could get something out of it, pray for or with Praise your children, let them know how valuable and great they are to you, take them seriously and take care of them – because you often harvest what you see yourself.

And something else – please never end the day in a fight – Thank God we as parents agree and think there is nothing more terrible for a small child’s soul than if she with this lousy feeling, this bad thought, this pressure and this enormously unpleasant burden, this distance and anger, this deprivation of love in the night is sinking. Sure, you get annoyed about something, you scold and show rules – set limits – this is also part of it and is important and correct! But on earth – get along, clear things up, resolve the argument before going to sleep! This is the only way to leave enough space and space for beautiful dreams and good thoughts.