Why Does It Feel Like My Toddler Is Staying Up On Purpose?

Because I’m ready for her to go to sleep.

As a stay at home mom, the time of day that I look forward to the most is nighttime.

Why you may ask?

Because that is the time of day that I can finally get some peace and quiet and have some time to myself

Kids are naturally loud, excited, and exaggerated.

They are on go-go mood all day and always down to play.

And my daughter is no exception

Most days, she is on 10 all day long from the moment she wakes until she takes a nap and then again at bedtime.

By the end of the day, this mama is wore out from chasing her around all day.

So when it is bedtime, I start to get excited because I know what happens after that.

I will finally have some me-time that will probably include some silence in there.

But I can only get that time after she goes to bed.

Which is where the struggle lies.

Like most kids, my daughter isn’t always ready to go to bed.

She wants to stay up with mommy and daddy and be a big girl.

Because in her mind, being a big girl means getting to stay up late watching TV and eating ice cream.

(Hah. If only she knew that is just a very small part of a big girl.)

So when I have to tell her that she cannot stay up late, it often leads a meltdown.

A meltdown that includes crying and whining about how much she doesn’t want to go to bed.

And I get it.

Who wants to go to bed when it seems so much cooler to stay up.

For them, it is like leaving the playground right in the middle of having fun.

No one wants to leave the playground when it is fun.

So in order to put an end to some of these meltdowns, I knew that I had to figure out something.

Because by the time, I would finally get her down, I would be so wore out and couldn’t even enjoy my alone time.

Or worse I would stay up even later so I could get some alone time in and then wake up exhausted from staying up late.

And that is no good when I spend most of my days chasing my toddler around.

So something had to give.

I ended up created a nighttime routine for my toddler in hopes that it would help settle her more at bedtime.

And it did.

By having a routine, it became something that my daughter started to anticipate as we got closer to going to bedtime.

The meltdowns started to decrease and she was going to bed with a lot more ease.

If you are also struggling with putting your toddler to bed, then I highly recommend setting up a nighttime routine that you can follow every night.

With time, it will become something that your little one will get used to and the bedtime tantrums will gradually decrease.

I will leave a link to my toddler’s bedtime routine below if you are curious about what hers look like.

I also dive into how what happens during the day affects what happens at night as well why kids struggle with going to sleep.

You can check out all of that through the link below.

I will catch you all next time!

Read More: My 2-Year-Old Daughter’s Toddler Bedtime Routine

Love,

Just Jass