Is there a way to stop the act of taking away the ticket turning into a ‘taking something away’ scenario? Like for example, have it on the door in a pocket and the parent subtly removes it and the child has to check to see if its there in the morning like a surprise? Or does it work best when the child sees the ticket being removed? In which case, how to prevent a midnight tantrum?!

So i’ll try blacking out the curtains. Put them in separate rooms until its under control again and try the ticket system. Its a great idea, i love the thought of an extra large colorful ticket. As you say, its about having positive reinforcement.

You know the funny thing is i had it down when i used gummy worms as a reward in the morning but after a while (a month) i wanted to phase it out and switched to a better treat (chocolate cookie) if they stayed in their beds for 5 mornings (marked by stars on a chart) but they lost interest (maybe 5 mornings was too long). So i know it works, i just need to get the motivation back.

But then i have a question: what if she gets out of her room early to wake up her sister but i don’t know about it until i come in at 7am? Do i take the ticket away at 7am when I come in, or do i make sure i hear her getting out of her room, say at 6/6:30am and take the ticket away then and return at 7am to see who’s got a ticket? If i take the ticket away only at 7am it becomes a negative thing (oh, you didn’t stay in your room so no ticket/treat/tv scenario) or if i take it away at 6:00am then what motivation does she have to stay quiet until 7am since she’s already lost her ticket?

Its almost like she wants to follow the rules but by morning time its all too exciting and impossible to resist. I’ll just have to make the treat unbelievably good, right?

So if i get that under control so they both stay in their rooms playing quietly with toys (i’ll put some more in) until their alarm goes off, can i use the same rules/rewards for when i put them back to sharing? At some point this summer we’ll be traveling and they’ll be sharing, so i need to know how to motivate similar behavior when together.

oh i just love this site, it really has very helpful comments.

More advice please

Wow, that sounds tough. I have a few suggestions for you.

1) If she consistnetly wakes up early, then you might want to try putting her to bed earlier than 7:30 for a few nights so she doesn’t get so behind on sleep that she starts waking up early because she is overtired. I would try putting her to bed around 7–or maybe a little earlier to see if that helps her wake up a little later. And it will help her to get the normal accumulated hours of sleep she normally needs.

2) We had some friends with some bedtime issues–their situation was her kids were getting out of bed after they had been put to bed but before they fell asleep. They used a ticket system that worked really well. Each of their (2) kids got one ticket when they went to bed. If they came out of their room, they got their ticket taken away. If they still had their ticket in the morning they got a sticker on a chart. Once they had so many days of stickers they got to go to this really cool candy store to pick out some candy. Their kids are 4 and 3. Before my friend set up the system they went to the candy store and the kids did get to pick out a few things. Of course because it was such a fun place, they wanted to go back. Well, in order to go back they had to get so many stickers on their chart by having their tickets in the morning.

Because your daughter is 2.5 I would make a big, fun looking ticket. I think the benefit of having a ticket to hand over if she gets out of bed too early is that it is something tangible that she has to give up or give to you to get her sticker.

On another note, you can’t MAKE a child sleep (as much as we would like too!). Maybe you could have your youngest sleep in her old room again until she gets the ticket system down. I like the ticket system because it reinforces the positive instead of taking away something.

Other thoughts, do they have a lot of toys in their room? Maybe you can do some toy rearranging and keep some quiet approved toys in their room.

I hope that helps a little or at least give you something to work from.

What’s been making me crazy is the little one waking up the older one earlier and earlier (6:30am, 6am, 5:30am) and then waking up the whole house. My husband works late and so we desperately need at least until 7am. I’ve tried everything i can think of. They have the sleep rules posted on the wall and know them by heart, they both have alarms set to 7am and the younger one has a picture of ‘7′ so she knows. I even let them alone if they play quietly if its a reasonable time (6:30am) but recently, once the little one wakes up the older one (5:30am today), they stomp around, giggle, fight, pee in the bath, turn the room into a tornado zone and wake us both up. Aaaah!

IF they follow the rules they get a lots of praise/treats the moment they wake up. But it rarely gets to that point. Its happened only once in a week, (the day before yesterday) and was followed by a 5:30am chaos this morning. So i feel its all so negative. The mornings feel like ‘you didn’t follow the rules so…’ (no treats/tv) and i’m just dying for it to work and i can shower them with praise. urgh!

I’m wondering if i should put the girls in separate rooms. But before they shared a room, the little one would go into the older one’s room when she woke up. We tried preventing the little one leaving her room (rope, bribes, rules, praise) but it didn’t work (little one yelled so hard she woke everyone up). I figured they might as well share.

Does anyone know what i should do about the little one waking up too early? She naps (1.5hrs). She goes to bed at 7:30pm but still wakes earlier and earlier. I know its not because she’s waking up naturally but that she wants to play with her sister. Now we are all very tired and grumpy.

Help please!!

I don’t have any helps with the full bladder thing, unfortunately. My kids are still in nighttime gear because they don’t wake up and go. Maybe you could wake up your 3 year old before you go to bed to pee so his/her bladder isn’t so full?

I don’t get up before the kids do. I love sleeping too much! We all get ready together in the morning. What do you mean by be ‘ready’ for the day, just out of curiousity? Sometimes I have to let go of precious expectations I had for myself as patterns and life changes with the kids. Maybe that that would help you too?

I’m glad you found us!