On Saturday night I made the mistake of saying to the kids that they could stay up to watch some of Strictly Come Dancing. It's not a mistake while it's on, it's actually fun. They like dancing and jumping around and I get to see my favourite programme. However it meant that they were going to bed just a bit later than normal and that means that bedtime was going to be difficult as they're more tired.
As the programme finished a car's headlights flashed into the front room window and Isla saw them and said "who's that?". I don't really know how this happened but the words "Its the bedtime police, and they're driving round the street to check that all the children are in bed...." came out of my mouth. Where did that come from?! Anyway I decided to finish what I'd started and ushered them upstairs in the manner that they needed to get upstairs and into bed quick before the police knocked on our door. Next came a series of questions about the police. Ooops. I tried not to make it sound scary, just that they were doing checks (I almost believe my own lies sometimes!) but when Isla, who was now lying in bed asked if she could go to the toilet I told her to make it quick. She ran off to the loo, and whilst on the toilet, had a really concerned look on her face, every so often furtively staring down the stairs to make sure they weren't at the front door! She dashed back to bed, jumped in. Both of them settled down quite quickly and Saturday night for me was resumed with a glass of wine in hand and the X Factor.
The following morning I'd decided that the police trick was going to be a one off (it was a bit mean!) and I told them that the police were so happy with their performance at bedtime, they were the best children in the street and they wouldn't be coming by our house for a long time!
Just lately in our house I've felt like the invisible man (well, invisible mum). Isla is going through a phase of loving Daddy the most. And I really do hope it is a phase, because it's a well known fact that eldest daughters are generally the Daddy's girl.
It started recently when it came to the bedtime routine. My OH and I do bath time together with Isla, and then we get her in her jammies. She has her milk either on mine or the OH's lap while chilling to Balamory and then it's upstairs to bed. I only get home from work at the point where the bath is being run, so Daddy spends a few more hours with Isla before I get home and so I look forward to putting my baby to bed. However she's so stuck on him by the time I get back that she won't be prised from him. The first time this happened, I said 'ok time for bed now' went to scoop her up to go upstairs and she went MENTAL!! So, OH picks her up and she looks all jubilant and puckers her lips, making kissing sounds at me and says 'Night, Night'! Clearly, that's my cue to give her a kiss and bugger off to go and make dinner.....while they continue their love-in. Since then it's happened a few more times, I go to pick her up, she goes berserk and I'm at a loss to change things.
On Saturday night, the OH was doing some late food shopping and so bedtime fell to me. There was a chance that he could come back in time to put her to bed and I really think she sensed this. Before we went upstairs, she said ‘Night, Night’ to everything! I mean everything, every toy, the TV, even the lights, it was like a stalling tactic, where she thought, maybe just maybe Daddy will come through the door and rescue me from the evil clutches of Mummy putting me to bed....Silly I know, and when I’m thinking rationally I know that her behaviour isn’t personal, but some days when I get home from work I really like the small amount of time we have to be special and like to give her bedtime cuddles. It has had me in tears on some days which I know is ridiculous.
It's not only bedtime, when she wakes in the morning, the first call out is 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy' eventually this tails off into 'Mummy, Mummy, Mummy'.....
However this weekend, for the first time in a while I was the preferred parent but it ended up putting an abrupt end to her swimming lesson. I wasn’t feeling up to going in the pool this Sunday and so we decided that she’d just go in with Daddy and not both of us as we’d done in previous weeks. This was a bit too much of a change for her and so 20 minutes into the lesson, and hearing her call out ‘Mummy, Mummy, Mummy’ and pointing at me and then trying to scale the pool side to get to me, she came out for Mummy cuddles. Although it was a bit of a shame that her lesson was cut short it was so nice to be wanted, even if the cuddles were soggy!
Both the bedtime and the pool scenarios demonstrate that little kids don’t like change and they only feel comfortable doing things the way they know them, so Isla prefers Daddy to do bedtime and Mummy to be in the pool. It's nothing personal and I just need to pull myself together!
