Parents, are you familiar with the much-dreaded Bedtime Stall? You know the one:
I just need a quick drink of water.
I just need to go to the bathroom one more time.
I have one more quick question.
Well, my sweet T perfected that last one at the ripe ol’ age of three. Folks, I answer questions from sun up ’til sun down but when it comes time for bed, I need an answering service. I want to check the heck out.
A mother’s fantasy.
Every night, we would put the boys to bed and then head to T’s room to say our good nights. And then we would be hit with a firestorm of questions.
It was as if she saved a week’s worth of questions and blasted them at us right as we were about to close her door.
“Okay, T. This is the last one, okay? We’ll answer more tomorrow.”
But they just kept coming. And T is such a sweetheart that it was hard to put an end to it initially. Finally, after many weeks, we realized that this was not a passing phase. The questions were here to stay. We needed a game plan.
One night, we developed The Three Questions.
Three Questions
{A Simple Solution to the Dreaded Bedtime Stall}
The Three Questions
The Three Questions is simple, really. Basically, I told T that she could only ask us three questions. She had plenty of warning, so she could make those questions doozies– and, believe me, she did- but she could only ask three.
And, to make it easier for a 3-year-old to comprehend, I wrote out tickets for each question and laminated them. Because, you know, I love to laminate things.
At bedtime, we would hand her the three tickets and she would trade them for questions. When her hands were empty, the questions were over and it was time for bed.
And, do you know what?
It worked!
We used those questions every single night for well over a year. Then, one day, we realized that we didn’t need them any longer. The phase had passed. I tucked those question coupons into T’s memory box to share with her later, down the road.
The Three Questions, Part Deux
Nowadays, our sweet T is six-years-old. She’s long past the bedtime stall. At the end of the day, she wants to cozy up in her bed and read her books quietly.
But Seuss? Seuss is in the question phase. We no sooner put him to bed when we hear his little feet walking down the hallway.
“Dad? Dad?” he’ll whisper, urgently. “I have an important question.”
This questioning phase has been going on for about a month or more when it suddenly occurred to us that we should make him some question coupons.
And so we did.
Ta-da!!
And, guess what?
It worked!!
Often, the best solutions are the simplest.
He’s trying to think of a real doozy here, folks.
Here’s how to make your own Three Questions
All you need is:
Laminate ALL THE THINGS!!!
Simply write Question 1, Question 2, and Question 3 on three index cards with your sharpie and laminate. Voila! Question coupons!
Want to read a fantastic book about Three Questions?
If your children love to ask questions, and especially if they delight in the real doozies, you might try dabbling in a little philosophy. I love the book The Three Questions by Jon J. Muth. Based on a story by Leo Tolstoy and featuring Muth’s gorgeous illustrations, this story will delight your children and will prompt memorable family conversation about life’s big questions.
What simple solutions have you come up with lately? Share here so we can all learn from one another!
Here’s another one we came up with- stay tuned!
Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley
Cait co-hosts The Homeschool Sisters Podcast and is co-founder of Raising Poppies, a community for parents of gifted and twice-exceptional children. Cait is also founder of the Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, a fantastic community of book-loving parents and the Gameschool Community at My Little Poppies, a vibrant community of gameschoolers.
Cait is a contributing writer for Simple Homeschool. Her work has also appeared on The Huffington Post, The Mighty, Scary Mommy, GeekMom, and many others. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram
and G+.
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Many years ago before I retired, I was a fifth grade teacher in a magnet school for gifted children. Gifted children LOVE to ask questions, but one of my students just never stopped asking questions, and I had lessons to teach and 29 other students who had questions too! So, I made question cards like the ones you are describing and this student got 3 cards to use during our homeroom class and the 90 minute class I was teaching. I explained to my student why I had to limit his questions, and he was satisfied with the solution. I, on the other hand, hated to have to curtail any child’s questions, but the reality of the situation demanded a solution.
When my gifted daughter was young, we also had a similar problem and questions seemed to occur nonstop when we were riding in the car. My husband and I would impose a 15 minute question break on long trips, and you can be sure the next question was “Is 15 minutes up yet?” LOL Now, you can set the timer on your cell phone, and the child can wait for it to ring eliminating the variations of that age old question, “Are we there yet?”
You are very, very patient. I would allomy son 1 question.
I love this idea, and so simple. I never had issues with my son (8) at bedtime, but my daughter (4) always has or wants someting at bedtime. Usually she pulls the I’m thirsty card.
Thanks, Marienne! I almost thought it was too simple to share, but I hoped it could help someone out there. Do you know what we did with the I’m thirsty card? I put water bottles in their bedrooms 🙂