X posted: How to keep ds from making a mess at night?

[leighi123]

Ds and I share a room, he has a toddler bed and I have a twin bed.   He goes to bed at around 9 and I go to bed much later, he usually falls asleep in my bed, I put him in his, and he ends up back in mine. 

Anyway, when I put him to bed, we do our little night routine thing, ending with me turning on a book on tape for him to listen to and the fish tank light, and I say goodnight.  He typically doesn't fall asleep for an hour, which is fine.   He used to just wallow in his bed/my bed/the floor, look at books, and then sleep.   

But latetly he has:  thrown a ball at the door which bounced against the lava lamp and busted it (and then he didn't tell me, I almost stepped on the glass), gone into the bathroom (off the bedroom) and shaved off one of his eyebrows with my eyebrow trimmer thing, gone into the bathroom and made a mess with lipstick stuff, made a mess in the bathroom with a tray of watercolor paint that was in there, and tonight, he climbed up to a shelf well above his head in the closet, got the fish food and water conditioner, and dumped the whole bottle of the stuff and all the food in the fish tank.  (again he didn't tell me about this, he came and asked me to fix something on his bed and thats when I noticed the empty containers and the RED water in the tank from all the food, I got to change all the water at 11pm).   When I finally went to bed there were pretzel crumbs all over the place under my covers. 

The rule is: don't mess with the fish tank, don't go in the bathroom unless you are going pee, and stay in a bed no toys, no food in the bedroom (at any time).  But obviously he isn't following that.   

I cannot take all the 'stuff' out of the bedroom (ds and I have 2 rooms to live in in the house, there is no where for it to go), I can't go to bed with him that early (evening is my only time to myself to do schoolwork and sewing).    

How do I keep him from messing around?  

[4evermom]

He's almost 4, right?  I swear that's the age when I had to childproof.  Before that, ds didn't "explore" all the cupboards and drawers and would ask me for help if he wanted something.  It's an age when they are more aware of the things that are out of sight though having things out of sight can minimize exploration of the things the child is less curious about.  It won't stop them if it's something they are interested in.

Although you don't have other places to store things, could your rooms use tidying and decluttering?  Some of the problems sound like accidents or messing with things that are left out.  Maybe being more mindful of having the real mess makers put away would help.  I used to have to be especially careful of things like lotions and squirt bottles.  Ds just really liked dispensing those sorts of products.  I could NOT leave them out by the bathroom sink.

Maybe he needs some "quiet toys" to have in bed.  Or a story on tape?  Something to occupy his brain a bit while he winds down.

You could put bells on the bathroom door if you think you'd hear them from wherever you are studying. 

[rubidoux]

Maybe his bedtime is too early.  It doesn't sound like he's tired.

[phathui5]

How old is he?

[Boot]

Sounds a lot like my four year old. It's not that he's not tired, it's just that he has a hard time shutting his brain off long enough to go to sleep. In the past month he's burned a hole in his mattress (left a naked bulb on the bed), broken the curtain rail (swung from the curtains) and broken his bed (jumped from the dresser on to the bed). He has his own room which is becoming more and more like a monk's cell. I've moved all his clothes into the top part of the closet and cleared his shelves. Next step is removing the broken bed and just having a mattress on the floor. If I stay with him he keeps himself awake to chat to me (even if I won't respond). My only advise is to childproof as much as possible and hope that it's just a phase. My sympathies. 

[lifeguard]

Since you're just in the next room could you just leave the door open so you can monitor him more?

[leighi123]

He will be 4 in July.  

Our room really doesn't have a whole lot in it, its mostly books, soft toys, some games, and a few random small toys on a shelf (he doesn't really play with toys, and his homeschool stuff is in my sewing room, which is why its hard to 'downsize' any more than we already do)

We do put on a book on tape for him, which in the past worked great because he would lay in his bed and listen to it until he passed out.   He also used to just watch the fish swim around, and now he messes with the poor fish!  

If I leave the door open, he can hear us talking in the other room and comes out to see what the conversation is, open door to him means he is allowed to leave, I don't mind him playing quietly/reading in his room, but its bedtime!   He is actually pretty quiet while he is doing this stuff, which is also hard, I usually find out about it when I go to bed.  If I check on him sooner, he wants me to play with him, complains he is scared/hungry/lonely etc. 

 I've tried moving his bedtime later - he does the exact same thing for the same time period, which means I have even less time to get the stuff I need to do done before I need to go to bed myself!  He is one of those kids that needs VERY little sleep (he sleeps a total of maybe 8 hours a night, never naps, and is super active (in one day he will go to work with me in the morning, then be at the beach in the ocean for 2 hours, eat, come home and swim in the pool another couple hours, take a shower, do some of his school work, then want to ride his bike around the block which is almost a mile, then want to play golf in the yard, then eat, then read a million books, then run around some more, then finally go to bed)   Its exhausting!!!   

Soo....

I need to lock up the stuff in the bathroom (I never had baby locks before, I guess I need them now??!)  

Maybe move the fish to another room for the fish's safety (though I'm not sure where, I'll have to think about that one)

I can't take anything else out of the bedroom though, no where for it to go, so I'm not sure on that stuff.   Last night he took ALL the blankets/sheets off both beds, pillows out of the cases, soft toys out of the beanbag thing they live in, and a whole bunch of clothes out of the closet and put it all in a pile in the middle of the room so he could jump off the bed onto it.   

maybe I need one of those baby monitors with the video thing so I can see what he is up to! 

[mamazee]

I put bells on my dd's room at a one point, maybe around that age - i don't remember, so that I could tell if she'd gotten up so I could make sure she didn't do something crazy. I would baby proof his room, and then put bells or something on his door so you can hear if he leaves his room and follow him to make sure he just uses the bathroom and heads back.

[moppit]

So you have two bedrooms but use one for sewing? Can you just sleep with your sewing and have the other room for him and the homeschool stuff? My kids make a huge mess at night too but its just their toys and nothing dangerous. I wouldn't keep him up any later 9pm is already on the late side for a 3 year old!

[leighi123]

Bells!  Cute Idea, I dunno if it would work for the bathroom thing, its a sliding door that goes off the bedroom (its a "jack and jill" set up)

We have 2 rooms for all of our stuff - current set up has one bedroom with both of our beds, toys, books, our closet with clothes.   The other room has sewing stuff and homeschool stuff.   Its set up that way because we often co-sleep at least part of the night, so I want both of our beds in one room, and I prefer to keep school and sleep separate.  And My sewing stuff takes up a LOT of room, so even if we each had our own room, I couldn't fit my bed (twin) in with the sewing stuff, I wouldn't be able to sleep with that stuff there anyway (I sew for a living, so again it would be combining work with sleep!).   They are both pretty small rooms, and we have minimal "stuff" because of it.   

And he will mess with stuff that needs to be out!  He uses cloth wipes still and the wipes solution is in a little soap dispenser thing, he dumped that out.   But I can't really put that away, because if he has to go potty he will need it.  He also cut a hole in a nice scarf I had been using as a table cloth under the fish tank (sits on an end table).  Scissors live in the sewing room, but he told me he had hidden them under his bed earlier in the day!    Its always something!  

Tonight he passed out pretty quickly, we had him boogie boarding all day after church so that wore him out!