Bed Time Routines, Chores & Allowance

It’s amazing what a difference routines make with kids.  And it’s amazing how quickly we forget to keep up with their routines.  Awful silly, considering when you stray from the routine itself the parents are usually the ones to suffer…

This has been evident in our house over the last couple of weeks.  Every night at bed time I hear “But I’m not tired yet!”  and someone melts down into a puddle of tears and tries to cuddle up in our laps and get even just a few more minutes of ‘awake time’.

Then we cave, and she goes to bed for “quiet bedtime”.

I don’t know if “quiet bedtime” was a genius parenting move, or a STUPID parenting move on our part.  Basically, we allow her to either read books or play with a toy or the ipod for a little while instead of just going to bed.  Usually she falls asleep anyway:

However, back when we implemented her chore chart, and she was in a routine…  we didn’t have this problem.  She’d happily go to bed – hugs and kisses and all.

Plus she had an allowance.  Not a big allowance — but enough that she was able to go to the store and buy herself a {small} toy once a month.

I think I just need to update her chore chart and reinstate her allowance…

This {below} was her chart…  She had helped me make it and picked out what pictures to use.  That was a bonus too — as it meant she could go check her chart and see what she still needed to do ALL by herself!

I think I need to take at minimum take off the potty stuff since she doesn’t really need the motivation there anymore.   Past that — does anyone have any thoughts on what chores would be good for a three-year-old??

Until then….. I need to get her back on a routine… so we can have more peaceful sleeping nights……

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