Please help me to sort this out...2 kids, 1 bedroom!?

Question

I have 2 kids.

Older son ag 8

younger son age 4.

I only have a 2 bed house, so they have to share a room, and some nights it causes h**l!

If my youngest isnt asleep by 8 pm(thats my older sons bedtime), then nothing seems to work when trying to get thwem both to sleep at the same time!

If they are both awake, they just lay there whispering to each other all night!

The other night it was 10.30pm by the time they got to sleep, and that was only because i had to take my oldest out of that room, and out him to sleep in my room!

I have tried grounding, bribary, taking away favoutite toys the next day, putting the ps2 an nintendo ds away for a week etc... nothing has worked!!

Please help me!!

Answer 1

Try putting a separator in the room. Make sure the younger one is asleep well before the older one enters the room at night...and don't worry!

Answer 2

You can't make 2 kids fall asleep at the same time. I think it's alright if they talk instead of sleeping. They'll sleep when they start feeling tired. Do they take afternoon naps? Maybe naps are keeping them from sleeping early at night.

I grew up sharing a bedroom with my younger sister, and we used to chat like that.

Answer 3

put up a wall so they cant see eachother

Answer 4

My two girls also share a bedroom. Last night, because of the neighborhood fireworks, the oldest couldn't get to sleep. I gave her a booklight and told her to read. So what did she do? She ended up in the lower bunk with her sister and read to her until I don't know what time. I'm really not sure what the answer is. I think, though, that making the younger one's bedtime earlier by fifteen minutes and extending the older one's fifteen minutes might give the younger thirty more minutes to fall asleep and get into a deeper sleep by the time the older one comes to bed. Other than that, I'm not sure I'd worry about it too much unless it is a nightly occurence.

Answer 5

As long as they are not fighting what is the worry here? They will fall asleep sooner or later. Just don't let them sleep too late, because once school starts they will be in the habit and it will be hard to break.

Answer 6

Use the curtian idea, and seperate the bedtimes as much as you can, so hopefully 1 will fall asleep before the 2nd, and the curtain will help seperate them if that doesnt work.....as they get older they will fight less and u will hav less problems...good luck :)

Answer 7

I think the curtain is a great idea.  It will also help both children to feel a sense of ownership in their space.  If it isn't possible to do this, I suggest staggering the bed times a bit more to allow more time for your youngest to fall asleep. I would also suggest having a conversation with them about how important it is for each of them to get a full nights sleep.  You could even tell them that they both have jobs of being "night watchmen" (making sure the other isn't causing any disruptions in the "sleep zone").  I know that may sound cheesy but I think kids, generally, love that sort of stuff.  Good luck! :)

Answer 8

I have this too and nothing really works that well, if youngest is still awake when the oldest goes to bed they're up for hours whispering to each other. My lads are older now 10 and 14 but it still happens occasionally but they're old enough to take the consequences.  I found delaying the older child's bedtime by half an hour helped, sure he missed out on half hour sleep but its better than missing out on 2 hours + sleep because of chatting and giggling. Try moving the 4 year olds bedtime forward half an hour make it special, reading to each other etc and move the oldest's bedtime back half an hour. Anything basically so the youngest is asleep by the time the oldest goes to bed.

Answer 9

They are not tired enough..less or no video games, more work,excersize, fresh air and sunshine.  limit sweets and caffiene, get them up early so they run out of steam earlier...I have my study near the kid's room and usually chose to do my e-mail stuff around their bedtime so I can keep ssshhhh'ing  them until they fall asleep.

Answer 10

Try putting curtains through the middle of the room, make it so you can put the younger one to bed first and then the older one can come in afterwards without disturbing. they also won't be able to see eachother so might not talk as much.

Answer 11

Give them a smack on the A***.

Answer 12

Just have the younger one asleep befroe the old er one comes into the room.

Good Luck

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