Why Over-tired Kids = Trouble

Over tired preschoolers/toddlers = fit in the making.

Take for instance last week.  The heat can really take it out of you, especially if you are under 3 feet tall.  Usually bed time goes off without too much drama… Oh, there’s the usual stuff like Peanut getting out of bed to take one more trip to the bathroom or to tell us she is hot.  Sometimes she opens the door to ask Daddy to sing “Rock a Baby”  (That’s what she calls “Rock a Bye Baby”) one more time… It’s all normal 3 year old stuff.

But then there are the times she is way too tired…

“I don’t want to go to bed…  I’m not tired!” she says in a whiny voice (stifling a yawn mid-sentence).

“I know,” I say, trying to warn off any possible future problems.  “But it is time for bed, and sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do.  Let’s go brush our teeth.”

“I don’t want to brush my teeth!”  She sprawls out on the hallway floor.

“Okay.  Well, you have 3 minutes to go brush your teeth, otherwise we will just skip that part tonight and you will still be going to bed.”  (Mommy recognizes the attempt to put off bedtime…)

2 minutes pass and I tell her she has 1 minute left to go brush her teeth or she will be going to bed without brushing them.

“I don’t want cavities!”  She starts to cry.

“Okay, well, go brush your teeth.”

“I don’t want to brush my teeth!”

It goes on a few rounds before I stop myself.  It’s just helping her stall for time and isn’t getting us anywhere.

“Okay, well, your time is up.  Let’s go to the potty and get our jammies on,” I say.

“I don’t want to go potty!”

“Fine, I’ll put an extra waterproof pad on your bed,” I say, trying to remain calm.

“No!!!!!!”

“Well, it is bedtime, and we are going to bed.  You really should go potty so you don’t have an accident.”

“I don’t want to go potty!”

“Fine, you can wear a diaper.”  (I admit, that was a low blow, but by then I was getting a little tired of this…)

“I’m not a baby!”

“You’re right, you’re not.  Mommy is sorry.  Let’s go potty and get our jammies on,” I say.

Then there is this whole thing about how she wants to take her purple ball to bed, but it is too heavy for her to carry… (It’s the size of my hand, and she carries it around all the time…)  I convince her she can kick it down the hall.

“I don’t want to get my jammies on,” she cries as she sits on the potty.  (At least she got on the potty finally….)

“You can sleep in your clothes then…”

“I’m going to get cavities!!! I want to brush my teeth!”  (Seriously, are we back to that???)

Eventually I brushed her teeth for her, she DID get her p.j.’s on, and she fell asleep before her daddy even finished singing.

Of course, by then, Mommy was exhausted too.  So much for quality adult time, lol.