I was reading the potty training thread and noticed several comments about bedtime struggles and thought I'd start a new topic on that subject.

One trick that worked for us recently was to develop a token system, which works quite well if your child is motivated by bribes..er, I mean incentives.

Our oldest (5 yrs) had been doing well with bedtime for a long time, so I was quite discouraged when he recently decided he didn't want to go to his room alone, would sneak out of bed, and find every excuse in the book to get out of his room. Well, he and his 3 yr old brother each got an empty baby wipes container to decorate with stickers. I also bought some cheap pirate money in the party favors section at Target (plastic gold and silver "coins").

If my son went to bed nicely without any drama, stayed in bed, and overall did a good job with the bedime a routine, he would earn a token the next morning at breakfast. (Daddy sometimes declared occasional nights to be special "double token" nights which would earn 2 tokens!) I had a stash of rewards they could "purchase" with their tokens, and each reward had a number written on it. For example, a package of M&Ms was worth three tokens, a small hot wheels car was worth 5, some really small items worth one... We got to practice math and counting as they saved and cashed in their tokens, plus the system worked like a charm! I was afraid they would be requesting tokens until graduation, :boggled: but after a couple weeks, they sort of forgot about it but kept going to bed nicely!! I still have a few rewards tucked away that were never used.

I have also heard of making " get out of bed" tickets that the child can cash in....such as 2 tickets each night to use for getting a drink, another hug, etc. Once the tickets are used up, no more trips out of bed.

Hope this is helpful!