Hello!

Hi! My daughter, who is 3. Has always been a good sleeper but within the past couple of months she does everything and anything to not go to bed. She uses everything from “I have to pee” “I need a drink” and then when you finally get her laid down she lies in bed talking playing with her stuffies or will cry/ scream. Does anyone have suggestions for how to make bedtime go more smoothly. On a side note she does have a bedtime routine and always have had one. Thanks


Want more real mum questions sent to you?

You'll need to check this email to complete your signup.
  • If anyone has the perfect answer to this, they deserve the Nobel prize.


  • This didn’t happen to me, but I’ve found the comments posted really interesting with some good ideas.


  • I am in the same situation. The most recent thing we have tried and it has worked for about a week. We put on story books in her room and let her listen to them whilst going to sleep, it keeps her in her bed.


  • I put the DVD player on & not long after she falls asleep


  • I like the idea of a rewards chart too!!


  • I would try and reward chart and reward her with gifts or a toy


  • I play with my girls hair, she falls asleep fast


  • well thank you for the good tips I will use a reward chart to this is the hardest time of day getting kids to bed grrrr


  • My second son had trouble going to sleep so one night I read him a story, then massaged his forehead for five minutes. It worked. Maybe you could involve your little girl in some relaxation exercises before bed.


  • Reward chart, tell her no more excuses, get a drink and pee before bed as you can’t once your in bed maybe?


  • My girl is 3 & was having an afternoon nap. We stopped that & now she tells us she is tired & wants to go to bed. Bedtime is when the fairies come & they have beautiful dreams. Tell them if they go to bed, they have beautiful dreams & how you want to hear about it in the morning


  • See if you can think back to when this first started happening and if there were any changes that you can think of that might have caused this. Sometimes it can be simple things like her seeing something on tv that has caused a mild upset, her finding out that something exciting happened one night after she went to bed, any number of things.
    If she lays and bed and plays with her toys then i wouldnt worry about that. Thats fine but the getting out of bed and the crying or screaming is an issue.
    You dont say what time you are putting her to bed and what time she gets up in the morning. Does she sleep during the day?
    It could be that you are putting her to be too early.
    I had friends that would put the kids to bed at 7 at night and then complained because they were awake before 6 in the morning.


  • Every kid is sooooo different, maybe try the reward charts first? Does she still nap in the day? Could need a little mix up of routine :)


  • I give my daughter the little mermaid book and CD. She then has the book in bed and the CD reads her the story. She then is relaxed, I am not in the room and buy the time the song cones on she is asleep. I tip toe in later and switch her lamp off. I think the CD/book cost $5


  • I don’t know what the answer is here, I get the occasional up down business happening but mainly when I put mine to bed I ‘give permission’ for them to be having quite time by themselves….. usually if they don’t want to go to bed they start a little defiant but crash before they work out what to do about it. Best of luck, it must be frustrating.


Post your reply
Add a photo
Your MoM account


Lost your password?

Enter your email and a password below to post your answer and join MoM:

↥ Back to top

Thanks For Your Star Rating!

Would you like to add a written rating or just a star rating?

Write A Rating Just A Star Rating
Join