My 5 year old daughter is a lovely child and I am a fairly decent mommy until bedtime. After bedtime routine is done- potty, jammies, teeth, stories -she pops right out of bed. If daddy is home she will go bother him or hang out with him. If not she jumps on me, kicks me, crawls way under the covers, finds a flashlight to shine in my eyes etc. When asked she says she is not tired. We have given her the option to play quietly in her room if she cannot fall asleep. She rarely will do this. So my daughter,who bedshares with me, escalates her behavior until I have to hold my hands up to protect myself from getting kicked in the head and this often ends in her getting hurt and me feeling like a bully and feeling really bad to get "physical" in this way with my daughter. Often I then warn her that it's not okay to hurt mommy and that if it continues I will need to go to another room because I have a right to not be hurt. So then she' banging on the door crying "mommy, mommy- I;'m scared I want you I'm sorry etc." Obviously my way is not working but I am so tired at the end of the day all my patience and super mommy skills have left me. Let me also say that 5 nights a week daddy works second shift and that my daughter and I go to bed at the same time (ensuring she will sleep later in the AM for daddy). When I am less tired I will rub her feet or back, put lullaby music one, tell a story in the dark or we count animals jumping the fence. Even without the drama it sometimes takes up to 2 hours for her to fall asleep. I just don't want to go on like this several nights a week. I struggle with resentment because I am tired and want sleep. I have started getting up late and being late to work. Ugh! I need to try something new.
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