Good Cop vs. Bad Cop

I knew before we ever had children that I would be the Bad Cop and Jay would be the Good Cop, I'm the disciplinarian and he's the softy. I can't help it, I'm a rule follower, always have been......well, except during my teenage years but I don't want to make my parents relive that conversation so I'll move on.

Colin has always been very good about going to bed, it may be a fight to get there but once he's in bed, he usually doesn't complain much and goes right to sleep. The exception to this is when he's sick, I'm very comforting and will let him sleep with me because nothing makes you feel better when you're sick than being close to Mommy. Of course this doesn't come without a small battle to get back on track of sleeping in his own bed but that normally only takes a day or two.

It's no secret that Jay's a night owl, he always has been and he needs his sleep. Don't dare wake him before he's ready, the bear comes out! So I'm usually the one that got up in the middle of the night and always gets up first thing in the morning when Colin wakes up.

For some reason, this week Colin has been wanting to sleep in our bed and I always tell him "NO" but Jay tends to promise him that he can sleep in our bed the following night if he goes to bed. Well, we all know that kids have the memory of an elephant because what does he want to do the next night.....sleep in our bed. UGH! That fight is not fun at all.

When these sort of fights start, I bust out the bed time chart. I mark off the days of the week and if he goes to bed without whining or fighting and stays in his bed all night, he gets to put a sticker on the chart the next morning. Very simple, I know but it works and it's all about the sticker. I'm sure sooner or later I'm going to have to start to promise bigger things that a simple sticker. It's working very well and he knows that if he comes out of his bed in the middle of the night, we mark an "X" on the chart instead of getting a sticker and he's quite upset about that but rules are rules.

Last night, Jay had a very late soccer game and came to bed later than his usual. I had gotten up to go to the bathroom at 2:30 and he was still up. By the time I had fallen back asleep, Colin came in our room whining that he pooped. Great, I had just gotten back to sleep but Jay got up and went and changed his diaper......Thanks dear! But he brought Colin back to our bed and went to the guest room so he could get some sleep. Not cool! So, back to the rules, he's got to go back to bed in his own bed. I got up and took him back to his bed and laid down there for a little bit until he got sleepy and then told him that he needed to stay in his bed in order to get his sticker. He stayed and fell back asleep......SCORE!

Just when a little bit of success falls, we're going out of town this weekend so it's back to the drawing board Sunday night when I have to sleep train him all over again.