discipline

Take away privileges, like Pogo. Or even playing outside after supper, if they didn't settle down the night before. The older 3 will understand this, and the younger ones may learn from it. First children are always the experimental ones :) The younger ones follow suit from what they see...

Hi there. I have noticed you are also new here in myLOT. Welcome and have a nice time here. Actually, despite the fact that my parents are not here so guide me because I belong to a broken family. But I am still fortunate that my mother was really do her best just to give us a decent life. I am currently a nursing student here in the Philippines. Also, I am proud to say that I have not gone the wrong way because God is always there to guide me all the times and it seems that my mom was always there. Goodluck in your family life. I know you can do it. ^_^

About an hour before bedtime I have my kids settle down. They brush their teeth, use the bathroom, and get their school stuff ready for the next day. Once they are done with this, they either go to bed, if it's time or they sit and watch TV or read. When I say bedtime they get to bed and if not, I make them go earlier the next day. It's only happened once that going to bed earlier didn't work and when that happened I took away their favorite thing to do, which was play video games. That worked. My kid's bedtime is 9:00pm and I start them getting ready inbetween 8:30pm and 8:45pm. At the latest, they are in bed with the lights off by 9:10pm. I hope this helps and you are able to get your kids to bed without problems.

It would honestly help to have just a little more information like ages and genders and sleeping arrangements. I only say that because it's easier to break down the bedtime routines amongst smaller groups instead of 7 at a time....but I also know that family dynamics don't always allow for smaller groups...I have 6 plus two step kids. They don't all live with us but if they did, we have a group of three and a group of two but the others don't match up with any one else and having a bunch of individuals all doing the same thing is just as chaotic as a group of 7 doing it at the same time.

julybug my only idea is maybe you could get the older kids to help their younger brothers and sisters to get ready for bed and by the time the littler ones were down, and getting sleepy maybe the older ones would then be ready for bed and it wou ld not be such a hassle. make them proud to be able to care for the littler kids.

for me (i have 5) i give them time to "wind down", laying on their beds alone with a book or even a tv show (non violent)really helps. after lights out they must be quite. if they do not they lose a previlage the next day..and i stick to it. if your older kids do not listen to you about going to bed then maybe it is a respect issue, not a bedtime one. also maybe the older ones do not need 10 hours of sleep-only 8?