Not a Peep!

The Hobi's have had a difficult time keeping their little ones in bed after lights out.
Apparently their little bladders can't seem to wait till morning, even though they JUST walked away from the bathroom. Or they are SOOO thirsty, with the wet mustache still on their face.
Mom is ready to "clock out" but these silly needs ruin that relaxing sigh of relief.
It was ridiculous how many trips were made to the bathroom with the detour to see what was going on in other parts of the house. And the bedtime would drag on..... and..... on!

Last week we put a STOP to it! Sam and I agreed that we would simply ignore any child that came out of their room. Jennica was the visitor this particular night. Sam and I were each on a separate couch reading. She came in the room and asked if we would close her blinds. We ignored her....she sat down next to Sam and began chatting....no answer. She got right in his face and rubbed his hair, and chin and kept talking away. He did a great job ignoring her.
I am laughing behind my book across the room.
After she realizes he is ignoring her (it took a few min.), she came to me. Her tactic changed. She didn't use all her mushy daddy stuff on me. Instead she said: "Mom, if you don't talk to me I'll never do what you ask again!"
Now Sam is laughing behind his book.
She gave up on us and began talking to herself and flopped on the floor and started playing!
Sam and I exchanged looks?? IGNORE....
An hour later she is still at our feet asking questions and NOT getting a response.
10pm rolls around and we got up and went to bed.....Jennica in tow.
I had to lock our bedroom door to get her to retreat.
Sam and I laughed behind our locked door at the endurance of our 5 year old, but this tune was getting old.

Bedtime needs to mean bedtime! We decided to reward Jarom the next morning for STAYING in his bed and not say a word to Jennica about her intrusion.
The following morning at breakfast I lauded Jarom for staying in bed and told him he could have some ice cream when he returned from school.
As expected Jennica had something to say about that! I ignored her fit and followed up with Jarom that afternoon.

Bedtime that day went a bit differently! Jarom went to bed like a champ and so did Jennica!!
We were on to something!!
The next morning I was so excited they stayed in bed without any threats made by me nor tears shed by them!
I reward them each morning with a fish to put inside our giant fish tank. Once they have 5 fish inside the tank they get an ice cream cone.
Bed time now really means bedtime!! Not a peep from them at night! ahhhh! I can kick my feet up at the end of the day!

Credit to my wise husband for reading What Shamu taught me about a happy marriage . Hats off to you my love! You worked this one!

We had to modify the rules a bit for Jace. He usually stays in bed because he sleeps on the top bunk and I take the ladder away so he doesn't climb down. If I forget to take the ladder away he ALWAYS climbs down. I wanted to teach him to obey instead of taking away the temptation. Now I leave the ladder there and he gets a fish each morning also. His Ice cream reward comes every 3 days. I found 5 days is too long for him to see the point of his good efforts. On his 4th night of Not a Peep he suddenly lost all desire to continue.
"MOM!!" he yelled about 10min after bedtime.
"I DON'T WANT A FISH!!"
Then he busted out an obnoxious song and had a hay day throwing all his pillows and blankets off his bed.
He had enough of being good! I decided my 3 year old needed instant gratification.

I Love Bedtime. And my husband for curing our problem!