We try to stick to the conventional wisdom when it comes to parenting. It normally makes sense to stick to it when you can. Unless you have twins.
The conventional wisdom says that when you put your child to bed, don’t talk to them too much, don’t stimulate them, lay them down, wish them goodnight and walk away. If they cry, you should leave them cry it out for a few minutes before going back in, settling them without talking or stimulating and walking away. Lather, rinse repeat and eventually they will cry themselves out or give up and go to sleep.
The conventional wisdom is pretty good but not without flaws. Flaw number one, everything is stimulating to a curious and mischievous toddler. Flaw number two is that twin boys sharing a room like to take the conventional wisdom, roll it into a ball and throw it as far as they can out of their cots.
When they were younger it was just a case that they would sit up in the cot and chat to each other in earnest expressions of gibberish for a couple of minutes before drifting off. Then they got a bit bigger and Fat Chops realised he could reach the light switch which was often twenty minutes amusement. A little older again and they were jumping up and down in the cot. Now I am at the point where I am very worried about it escalating any further.
The root cause of these worries stems from their afternoon nap last Saturday. They were a little off colour so I was pretty confident that they would go asleep easily enough but I should know how they love to prove me wrong by now. I tucked them in, turned on the monitor and went down to get some lunch. I checked the monitor downstairs and could hear them chatting and laughing to each other. No harm there, I was sure they would tire in a few minutes and quieten down.
A few minutes passed.
Then a few more.
Then the singing began.
I decided to leave them to it, they weren’t unhappy and we had no plans for the afternoon so it didn’t matter if they slept a bit late. It was quite the sing song in the end and there was some dancing done as well judging by the racket coming through the monitor [and through the floorboards]. I ate my lunch and started to worry about them coming through the floorboards. I forced myself to relax over a cup of tea and failed miserably to ignore the din from above. After an hour, I decided go up and try and settle them down.
I was not prepared for what I saw. My wannabe rock and rollers had trashed the room. The first thing that hit me was the smell of a freshly filled nappy. I had to take a step back, wipe the tears from my eyes and compose myself before I went back in. The lights were on and what a scene it lit up! The cots had been emptied of everything. I mean everything including the occupants. They had thrown their pillows, blankets, soothers on the floor between the two cots and then they had stripped their clothes off and thrown them too. It took me a minute to figure out where they had gone but it was more a case of having to stop hyperventilating and look properly rather than them escaping completely. They had somehow worked their way under their sheets so they lay between the sheet and mattress laughing maniacally. As I tidied up I noticed a chip of wood that used to be part of one of the cots lying on the floor. Maybe I shouldn’t have been ignoring the din!
It took me ten minutes to change the nappy and put everything back together again and they must have had their fun because they slept soon after I went up. I think maybe we should get a couple of those sensory deprivation tanks.
