Bedtime business

Bedtime is serious business, the preparation for which begins a couple of hours ahead. Like everything in life, it pays to start early and like everything else with parenting, it’s all about planning and scheduling! It doesn’t end with serving dinner a couple of hours before your little one’s bedtime, but continues into how conducive you make your surroundings for them to let out a yawn and drift into sweet dreams. If you live in a house with their room in close proximity with your living area( read as television) ….then you better watch out for the volume or worse still, not have anything on TV that may even remotely interest them. When Abhay is tucked into bed, we are stuck watching CNN!! Watching anything funny or comic carries the risk of your little one wanting to join in the late night entertainment! Care must be taken to make sure conversations don’t revolve around any of the day’s events or else your eavesdropping kid may have something to contribute! And yes…..all moms will bear witness to this….if your little one hasn’t had a nap in the afternoon, come what may….you cannot have them even accidentally fall asleep post 6.00 PM! If they do, you can forget about your bedtime!

Anyway, today Abhay missed his nap and so I wanted to read to him something that can lull him to sleep almost as he soon as he hits the bed. I read a book called “Bunnies are not in their beds” by Marisabina Russo. It is finally nighttime and bunnies are tucked into their bed. Just when mom and dad find time to do go over the mail or read a book, they hear strange choo choo noises emanating from the bunnies’ room. As they tip-toe into their little ones’ room, the bunnies are not in their beds but are chugging their toy engines on their toy tracks. As the bunnies are ordered to go back to bed, the parents return to their unfinished business. However, the bunnies continue to spring out of their beds and repeatedly make – riding, racing and marching noises every time they are wished good night and lights turned out! In the end, the bunnies, again out of their beds, walk into their parents’ room to hear the sound of mommy and daddy tucked into bed and fast asleep! Although they rejoice over being able play all night, they fall asleep before they realize and before they even reach their beds. A wonderful bedtime book that will definitely get your bunny to bed and make him stay there!