kids advice Archives - Farmhouse Chic Blog

I am part of an AWESOME mommy panel with Cassie from Two In Diapers and Julie from Naptime Review.

Each Saturday, we will bring you fresh new ideas and advice about motherhood.

If you enjoyed what you read, we encourage you to tweet about it!

Coming on February 9th, we will discuss:

How do you refuel your mom tank?

Now on to this week’s topic!

How do you keep your family’s bedtime schedule manageable?

Here is what Mom Connection shared:

Welcome! I’m Julie over at Naptime Review. I am a mom of two wild, crazy and beautiful girls. My oldest just turned 4 and my baby is 16 months old. This is how I keep my family’s bedtime schedule manageable:

So what parent doesn’t deal with the struggle of keeping your kids in bed? Some nights Averie stays up later than we do. She is a night owl, so there is always that power struggle, endless sips of water, monsters under her bed, and the best one is when she says, “Mommy, I didn’t get a hug or kiss from you all day.” She’s a smart one! I found some tips from Love and Logic I wanted to share. Sadly, I fail when it comes to some of these tips and strategies. Since Averie is a night owl, we let her play quietly on her Leap Pad until she falls asleep.

Here are a few tips from the experts.

1.Create a routine: We do have our routine or laying out our clothes, reading stories, snuggle time and prayers.

2.Turn off electronic stimulation: Nope, we fail at this! However, it says that electronic stimulation makes it more difficult for a child to calm down.

3.Give plenty of choices: You can’t force a kid to sleep so you can give them choices such as lights on or off? Books on the floor or bed?

4.Model Confidence: When saying good night make it quick and positive. I am a pro at this one. Ha!

5. Enforce without emotions and too many words: Show kids it is ok to be alone as long as they stay in their room. Yep, did I mention power struggles? We need to work on this one.

Hi! I’m Cassie from Two In Diapers, and I’m a mommy to three sweet babies, ages 4, 3, and 20 months. This is how I keep my family’s bedtime schedule manageable:

My husband and I decided immediately when our oldest was born that we never wanted to get into a long bedtime routine. We had seen friends and relatives struggle with putting their kids to bed and end up with a bedtime routine that was sometimes hours long, and we really wanted this time to be short and sweet.

Beginning when they are babies, I normally {after changing diapers and what-not} stand swaying beside their crib and sing a song {usually the same one each night so they learn to know what is coming after the song}, and then we smother them with kisses, say goodnight and leave the room while they are wide awake. While this does serve the fabulous purpose of allowing them to learn how to soothe themselves to sleep, it has also taught our littles that bedtime means just that – bed time. While this has meant a different thing for each baby… my boys always fell asleep almost immediately but Emily always played in her bed for a while before falling asleep… we try to be consistent on one thing: following tuck-in is mommy and daddy time. If they stall at bedtime, we remind them that they are cutting into mommy and daddy time.

As they’ve gotten older, bedtime also means going potty, putting on jammies and brushing teeth. After those tasks are done, everyone {in theory} climbs into his or her bed and waits to be tucked in. It doesn’t always go quite this smoothly… but usually the most that happens is one or two of them play while we get the littlest ones dressed and ready.

While it does sound like we miss out on precious and valuable time reading books or chatting with our children, we definitely make the most out of our days and earlier evenings {and weekends, for daddy} for those special times. Since bedtime happens every night whether a parent is in the mood or not, we want to make sure that ours never becomes too long, exhausting, or burdensome for anyone.

Oh… and one more important plus: bedtime is easy for our babysitters!

My name is Alexa from No Holding Back. I am the mom of Nayner Bug (male, 5), Jelly Bean, (female, 3) and Tiny (female, 1). This is how I keep my family’s bedtime schedule manageable:

There was a time when bedtime made all of us cry. It was a terrible experience. Tantrums, tears, kids in and out of bed. Frustration. I did not realize early on how drastically important early bedtimes and CONSISTENT routines are! It is true: Children thrive on routine. And they will stay up all night if you let them, but they need sleep.

So, with some advice from other moms who seemed to have it down pat, I implemented a simple change. I printed out a bedtime checklist, and I backed up the bedtime routine. I want the kids in their beds by no later than 8:30, so we start our routine by no later than 7.

Every night of the week, Monday-Sunday (special occasions or outings excluded) we start baths at 7pm. After bath is either game, story, or sometimes they get treated with an episode of Backyardigans. This used to be a nightly event, but I realized it ate up too much time and wasn’t great for them. They have a snack, brush their teeth and get in bed. I sing songs, say prayers, and kiss them goodnight.

Sometimes they still get out of bed a few times, but for the most part, we no longer have the night time drama, and my life is SO MUCH BETTER!

It took a month or two of consistently repeating the routine every night before it stuck. It was worth the effort!

My name is Fotini! I blog over at Glamorous Affordable Life. I am the mom of (Isabella 20 months and Christian 6 years). This is how I keep my family’s bedtime schedule manageable:

I started bedtime routines with my kids from a very early age. I think this is the key to successful sleepers! I have had really good success with Isabella, starting around 3 months old. Every other night I would bathe her, put on a lavender sleep scented lotion, and sing a couple of lullabies. At this age until about one year, she wanted to be in bed by 6:30 p.m. and would sleep until about 7 a.m. Now that she’s older, I still continue with the same routine, but put her to bed around 7 p.m. She loves her bed and tells me every time she’s tired or ready for a nap. This makes it so simple on my husband and I!!

Christian is a good sleeper too! On school nights his bedtime is 8:40 p.m. and on weekends I let him stay up no later than 9:30 p.m. He was much more difficult as a toddler about going to bed, though. Once he was able to understand he could climb out of his crib, it started becoming a problem. Once that happened, we began converting him to a toddler bed and that was a bit of a challenge for us! It took a lot of patience and working with him to get him to stay in his bed for the first week or two. He would get up numerous times during the night once we put him down. I simply would walk him back to his bed without saying a word, tuck him in and walk away. Sometimes I felt like a complete zombie during the night doing this for almost two weeks, but in the long run it paid off! After a few months of sleeping in his, crib converted to toddler bed, we let him pick out his own “big boy” bed. Wouldn’t you know it, he picked out a hot blue little tikes car bed! He absolutely adored this bed, and couldn’t wait to go to sleep each night! We’ve never had problems with him as a sleeper since! Now, let’s just home the transition for Isabella goes this smooth 🙂

My name is Kristen from The Mrs. & The Momma. I’m the momma of three girls (ages 7, 5, & 3) and a little boy (18 months). This is how I keep my family’s bedtime schedule manageable:

First of all…my kids need A LOT of sleep. My school-age children are in bed asleep before 7pm every night. Making this a reality takes a lot of consistency, teamwork between me and my husband, and laying out clear expectations. Our kids know that when we say “get upstairs and start your bedtime routine”, it means PJ’s, brush teeth, and potty. We also keep a close eye on the clock. If we see that it’s getting too late, we’ll help hurry along the process, but also try to walk that fine line of avoiding potential melt-downs. Ultimately, sleep trumps most activities in our family. I know that one day, they won’t require so much….but for right now, a smooth and consistent bedtime schedule is the key to our family’s sanity. 🙂

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Your Turn:

How do you keep your family’s bedtime schedule manageable?

Leave us a comment; we love to read your tips and advice!

Need advice? Check out these previous Mom Connection topics:

Setting Goals with Your Children

Teaching Your Kids to Share

Getting your Preschooler Dressed

Balancing Blogging and Motherhood

I am part of an AWESOME mommy panel with Cassie from Two In Diapers and Julie from Naptime Review.

Each Saturday, we will bring you fresh new ideas and advice about motherhood.

If you enjoyed what you read, we encourage you to tweet about it!

Coming on February 2nd, we will discuss:

How do you keep your family’s bedtime routine manageable?

Now on to this week’s topic!

How do you handle picky eaters?

Here is what Mom Connection shared:

Welcome! I’m Julie over at Naptime Review. I am a mom of two wild, crazy and beautiful girls. My oldest just turned 4 and my baby is 17 months old. This is how I handle picky eaters:

I think this issue is important and can form and shape how children view food. In fact, I try to be very conscious of the words, I choose when discussing eating in our house. I don’t want to form any unhealthy relationships with food. I want my children to try new things and to learn how to eat a balanced meal. I believe in having kids try new food but not forcing them to eat new foods. I also always put a vegetable on their plate even though it rarely gets eaten. We make our plates colorful! In fact, there are many resources out there encouraging children to eat through the rainbow. Click here to learn more!

I also try to involve Averie into the meal planning and cooking process when feasible. I was so excited that she would enjoy the zucchini muffins we made together but she took one bite and said, “Yuck!” Oh well at least she tried it.

We enjoy kid friendly foods that can be eaten with our fingers. Sometimes, I cut sandwiches in fun shapes with cookie cutters! I try to make meal time fun and creative! Click here to check out a great blog, with lots of kid friendly recipes and suggestions!

I also try to keep in perspective that adult serving sizes and kids are WAY different. A nutritionist once told me, “Kids eat a TBSP per age.” For example, a serving of fruit for Averie is 4 TBSP since she is 4 years old. I try to keep that in mind when fixing their plates.

Bottom lines though, pick your battles on what you really think they need to eat. It is not worth fighting over a meal, making empty threats, and forming unhealthy relationships with food. Children will eat when they are hungry. You just need to make sure when they are hungry they have healthy choices and options.

Hi! I’m Cassie from Two In Diapers, and I’m a mommy to three sweet babies, ages 4, 3, and 20 months. This is how I handle picky eaters:

With a lot of patience and delicacy. You see – I happen to be married to the pickiest eater on the planet, so I definitely have at least one that inherited this unpleasant quality.

I strongly believe that forcing a child to eat something he or she doesn’t like is pointless, and the “eat 4 more bites and then you can get down” battle just sets everyone up for a long, frustrating meal. While each of my littles definitely has vegetables that they won’t touch, they also each have vegetables that they really like. For the most part, I really stay flexible and try to rotate around the healthy foods that they like. If someone doesn’t like something, we encourage them to eat it but don’t force them to {and I should add that we have a strict rule about saying rude things like “it’s yucky”}.

You might be thinking that my kids must eat horribly and I have no control over their health, but here’s the thing… when my oldest {Emily, 5 next month} was a baby and didn’t like a food item that I gave her, I left it in front of her. I didn’t make an issue out of it or try to force her to eat it. Each time we had the food that I knew she didn’t like, I keep putting it in front of her but not making a big deal out of her eating it. Eventually, she almost always ended up eating it. I’ve continued that on with all of them. Sometimes they never touch it {in which case we package it up and stick it in the fridge after the meal is over}, but many times they end up trying it later on.

One final thought: I think it helps a TON to either make food look interesting or to serve it in a way that they like. I often carve their names out of cheese slices or cut shapes out of other foods. Emily loves when I hide the letters of her name in her school lunch. And I definitely don’t have a problem with peeling off some bread crust if my littles will devour an entire sandwich this way, and I won’t complain about peeling an apple when my three-year-old will eat the entire fruit every day it it’s peeled.

In the end I know that we moms all have the same desire: to raise healthy children. I’m so looking forward to gleaning some ideas from the rest of you!

My name is Alexa from No Holding Back. I am the mom of Nayner Bug (male, 5), Jelly Bean, (female, 3) and Tiny (female, 1). This is how I handle picky eaters:

Aren’t all kids picky eaters? I have always wondered how some moms I know could get their kids to sit and eat a plate full of vegetables. I think I figured it out way too late. They introduced them young and just kept introducing them. And didn’t offer them chips and chocolate instead. Oops. I know where I went wrong! I am trying to reverse the damage done, but in my defense, I was put on bedrest early on in my 3rd pregnancy, hospitalized three times, (the last time for 36 days!) and had a preemie in the NICU for 3 months! So, the poor 4 year old and 2 year old were lucky they ate most days. However, months of chicken nuggets, pizza, and other junk set us back a few steps on the path to getting my picky eaters to eat well. So, after reading up on the subject, we implemented a simple plan. 1. Don’t make the junk food easily available. We don’t have chicken nuggets as a meal anymore. We have chicken breast, (as an example) and they are served what we eat. If they don’t want to eat it, they may be excused, but no other snacks for the evening. (Eventually they get hungry.) 2. They must have a “no thank you” serving. One bite of everything, and if they don’t like it, we don’t force it. 3. No snacks within an hour of dinner. A hungry child is more willing to dry different things! 4. Be relaxed about it. Who cares if your kid doesn’t eat every vegetable or fruit as long as they are eating some of them. It doesn’t really matter to me that neither of my kids will eat strawberries or pears, because they eat apples, oranges, grapes, melon, etc. 5. Give them choices. I have less of a battle over healthy foods if I let them choose between a variety of healthy options.

My name is Fotini! I blog over at Glamorous Affordable Life. I am the mom of (Isabella 20 months and Christian 6 years). This is how I handle picky eaters:

Christian ate just about anything as a toddler, even calamari! There wasn’t anything he wasn’t really interested in trying. Now that he’s older, he seems to have much more of an opinion about certain foods. If it doesn’t smell good, he won’t try it. If it looks bad, he won’t eat it. I mean, this is understandable, but it’s stuff my husband and I like! He loves cheese, but not melted cheese and refuses to eat a grilled cheese. Who doesn’t like grilled cheese?! So what I do with him is, I tell him to at least try a bite or two, and if he truly doesn’t like it, he doesn’t have to eat it. I’ve found this works for me right now because more often than not, he ends up liking it. It’s gotten so bad before, though, that I’ve asked him to try something and he’s gagging.. So I don’t “force” him to eat anything, I understand he is becoming his own little person, with his own likes and dislikes!

As for Isabella, we have had such a time with her teething, that some days she’ll chow down and others she only nibbles on things throughout the day. It really helps with her, if we are all sitting down at the table together, chit chatting about the days events, as well as eating. She seems to eat more. Not sure whether that’s coincidence or not?! She always like to try a bite of whatever I’m eating, so sometimes when she’s refusing to eat, I’ll pretend I’m eating it and then suddenly she wants a bite! Oh, how I’d love to know just how those little minds work

I really must admit, my kids are as picky as some I’ve seen so I’m fortunate for that! Can you relate with me?

My name is Kristen from The Mrs. & The Momma. I’m the momma of three girls (ages 7, 5, & 3) and a little boy (18 months). This is how I handle picky eaters:

Having picky eaters in our house is nothing new….my husband is King of picky eaters. So efforts to get my kids to try different things is sometimes futile. But I’ve learned a few tricks that I keep up my sleeve. Most kids go through a picky stage that usually starts to improve by about 5 (in our experience at least). There’s always that fear of our kids not getting enough nourishment when they have two Cheerios for breakfast and a rice cake for lunch, even though other food is offered. Basically to deal with my picky eaters, I offer only what I cook but make sure there’s at least one thing in the meal that they like. That way, if they refuse the main dish for example, I don’t feel as guilty telling them that breakfast will be their next meal. (read: This momma is no cook-to-order chef.) I think also disguising foods in others can be a useful strategy to help picky eaters get nutrients they need. As a parents of little ones, it’s tough to not hand over some processed bar or cracker when they’re hungry, but we really try our best not to…even if that results in some disgusted faces, throwing food, or full out melt-downs….and that’s just from my husband. 🙂

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Your Turn:

Do you have a picky eater in your house?

Leave us a comment; we love to read your tips and advice!

Need advice? Check out these previous Mom Connection topics:

Setting Goals with Your Children

Teaching Your Kids to Share

Getting your Preschooler Dressed

Balancing Blogging and Motherhood

{ MC: Managing A Bedtime Schedule }

Your Turn:

{ MC: How To Handle Picky Eaters!! }

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