Child Rearing Advice

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So i saw this documentary on child rearing on life network at 5 am, ( i was working on a paper) and well it was v. strange- these children refused to go to bed, would cry to the point of vomiting if forced to go to bed, or wander out of their room, or yell and scream. The advice of the parents was to firmly force them to sleep. I thought- obv. these tykes aint tired- just let them play or watch tv or read until they are tired- thats what my folx did- so what do you think of all this?

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 12:44 (twenty-two years ago)

my advice - don't have kids in the first place. too many fucking people in the world already.

― g-kit (g-kit), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 12:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, let them get tired. Enforcing sleep patterns upon youngsters has NO effect on their later behaviour! Look at me! Maybe.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 12:51 (twenty-two years ago)

If I ever have kids, I'll tell them they can stay up, as long as they are reading in bed. This will (a) calm them down; (b) hopefully make them sleepy; and (c) promote good reading habits.

If I have children who hate reading, then I will just jump out of a window and let them fend for themselves.

― nory (nory), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 12:58 (twenty-two years ago)

How old were said kids?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 13:03 (twenty-two years ago)

b/w 2-7

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 13:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd tell them they could do whatever they wanted as long as they were in bed and quiet.

(Stories like this cause me to pine for the days of corporeal punishment.)

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

if i couldn't get to sleep my mam would give me warm milk and brandy! i suspect that this would work on these little rotters also. alternatively yeah read to them!

― katie (katie), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 14:28 (twenty-two years ago)

these children refused to go to bed, would cry to the point of vomiting if forced to go to bed, or wander out of their room, or yell and scream. The advice of the parents was to firmly force them to sleep.

A parent's need for a child to "go to sleep" tends to correlate with their need to get some sleep or even (please gawd) a break from their child/ren. I recommend a calm and deliberate plan of action which includes a fairly consistent bedtime, a bedtime ritual, a nightlight, a glass of water (unless the child is inclined to want to introduce it to Mr. Night Light when you leave the room), some "quiet play" items nearby for those times when kids can't sleep, and -- for extreme cases -- a modest lock (such as that used for a window sash) to lock the child in for the night.

*gasp*

Yes -- a lock.

The latter became a necessity in our home when our toddler son took to wandering in the middle of the night and creating all manner of massive messes and creative play in the wee hours. In those days it wasn't unusual to discover a block of once-frozen raspberries on the couch in the morning, or the contents of a syrup bottle oozing out of the carpet, or all the cereal in the house dumped into a pile in the middle of the kitchen floor. At the point that I woke one morning to find my cutlery drawer emptied, my sharpest knives scattered across the floor, and the stove burners on roaring hot, I immuned myself to any cries of "inhumane treatment" and invested in a lock for my two-year-old's bedroom door, following which we all slept far more soundly, and safely.

― ragnfild (ragnfild), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

exactly, ragnfild.

― donna (donna), Wednesday, 2 October 2002 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

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