Get your kids to bed on time

There is nothing as difficult as getting your child to bed on time. But there are hundreds of tactics, so it’s just a matter of finding out what works.

By choosing a few choice tactics, you will have your child sleeping like a baby in no time. Here are some starting points.

It is helpful to start when your children are young. But even if you’ve missed some of the critical years of youth, you can still affect your behavior through routine modification. Get and stick to a routine.

Choose a time to go to bed. Parent timing experts consider eight o’clock to be the best time to put your children to bed. So stick to that number. That means you need to start preparing for bed on time. Back-up time from eight o’clock, and find out how long it takes to be ready. So don’t give up, even when your child is looking at you from under the covers.

Stick to the bedtime ritual at all costs. That means making sure your kids complete their waking tasks in a timely manner. Such tasks, such as homework, should be completed as early in the afternoon as possible.

Waiting to complete such tasks makes it nearly impossible to maintain a routine and can even have a negative impact on your child’s ability to perform well. However, getting them out of the way early will give your child very few excuses not to do what you ask and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

It’s also a good idea to limit your child’s television use, and this potentially includes keeping the television out of their bedrooms. The television is an easy and cheap distraction, and it’s easy to get away with it once it’s outside the bedroom door.

These few strategies come from some trusted experts in child development. They may require a bit of patience, but you should find that you have little trouble getting your children into a routine that they can stick with for the rest of their lives.