Fern Michonski / Fern’s Music
Pre-School Music Education Expert: The Children’s Advocate for Love and Kindness, Inspiring Creativity and Joy.
May 16, 2012—Time for Bed.
Any parent in the world knows that bedtime can be tricky. There are challenges at every stage of raising children. I’ve always been intrigued by the fact that when kids are little, we cannot keep them in bed in the morning, yet once they grow up a bit and become teenagers, we can’t get them out of bed! Go figure. In any case, today I’m not focusing on getting our children up in the morning. Instead I’m focusing on getting them settled down and asleep at night.
Having raised three children, I understand that every child has different concerns and issues when it comes to bedtime. I was very aware of following routines to get children to settle down. All of the usual “calming” things took place each night including baths, dimming the lights and reading stories. In spite of this, one of my sons was a master at coming up with every excuse in the book as to why he needed something that would require me to come back into his room. It got to the point where I had a list in my head that I would go over before saying “goodnight”, because I knew if I forgot one thing, I would hear him calling for me within minutes. And then there was my daughter. She was actually pretty easy to put to bed—unless a fly ventured into her bedroom at any point during the night. Then there was big trouble!
After dealing with the fly issue several times, I came up with the perfect solution. I went into her room where she was cowering in fear under her blankets and announced how lucky she was to suddenly have a new pet! She poked her face out and stared at me in amazement. A new pet? Yes! Mr. Fly is your new pet and I think we should pick out a name for him. The fear immediately disappeared and we sat there discussing a variety of names that would be appropriate for Mr. Fly. After choosing a name, I suggested she should be very still in bed until her new pet calmed down. It worked. Mr. Fly was no longer an intruder; he was a friend. After that, any additional flies that made it into her room were also given names.
Thank goodness! Another bedtime issue had been solved. All three of my children soon learned that once we had finished our bedtime routines, it meant “lights out” and that was that. However, nothing is ever simple in this life. Little things will always pop up, and being creative in a way that helps soothe our children’s fears is always a good thing.
I wrote a song called Go To Sleep, in honor of all children’s creative bedtime minds, and to the parents who strive to calm them. It can be found on my “Kids! Off To Dreamland With Fern!” CD–track 1. It will put a smile on every parent’s understanding face. I wish you a peaceful night!
