BRUSHING TEETH AT NIGHT

Anything you want a child to do needs to be put on THEIR time instead of your time. Give the child an idea of what to expect: “You are going to brush your teeth, I will read you a story and then you may play quietly in your bed until you fall asleep.”  When the child objects to brushing her teeth say, “If you get busy with the job of brushing your teeth, we will read all of your Winnie the Pooh book. If you take a long time being fussy about brushing your teeth, we will only read part of the book.”  If the child challenges your words, take what time is needed to brush the teeth, then only read half of the book. When you close the book say, “Tomorrow night, if you choose to brush your teeth without a fuss, we will be reading all of this book.”  Put the child to bed and say good night.

The use of a timer can assist the child with time management, but needs to be reasonable.  You don’t want your child the be nervous about doing something fast enough for you. 

Copyright (C) Sandy Spurgeon McDaniel, 2000