Special Bedtime Moments

At bed time Each of my children have their own I love you phrase.

My oldest is 11
I love you 11 times to the moon and Back

I love you 8 times the depth of the ocean

I love you 4 times the sun rays

I love you 1 times the stars

It's something we started when my oldest was a baby. The kids love it and its special for them. As they get older, I can just say "too the moon, of the ocean ect" And they will know what it means, even in front of their friends.

At dinner is when we do the three good things list. We go around the table and say what three good things happen today. This gets the kids talking and it also makes them look for the good things, even if it was a crummy day.

We do the favorite thing of the day at dinner (which is always at the table together, something I never had as a child).
At bedtime Daddy reads them 2 stories (they each pick out one) in the living room on the floor. I love this time because its a rare moment when we all sit down together without any distractions. Then I take them potty, get a drink of water and I tuck them in bed.
My daughter loves to have her back tickled. I sing her Hush little baby, while I tickle her back. She is five now and still loves this. Then we kiss and hug and say, "I love you, goodnight", then she gives me a hug and a kiss for daddy. I turn on her lulaby music as I leave the room, she has had the same music since she was a baby and still loves it.
My son (3) loves me to sing Twinkle, Twinkle, little star. Then its hugs and kisses and I tuck him in with his special blanket and say "I love you, goodnight". I turn on his lulaby music as I leave the room.

Thank you for posting this! I love to write/read about the possitive side of parenting too. My daughter went to a sleepover last night and I really missed her and tucking her into bed. :)

my daughter used to make up her own prayers, one i remember was , "line, star, line star, goodnight God", hand movements accompanied it....she got a kick out of me saying it with her.

it beats "now i lay me......"

My guys are a little older but still love to hear a good book. I love the ones designed around morals and that we can briefly discuss at the end as they are in bed, winding down. S. A. K., MFT

When my girls were little I picked up a Childrens Bedtime Bible Stories at that dollar store for them. They loved it and are keeping them for their children.

My son always says "Let's talk about our day," which means that I provide a blow-by-blow account of his day, sometimes a little difficult being that he's in school and I don't know what he does all day. I always end with "then we talked about our day and here we are." Silly, but he likes it. I think kids like the routine, whatever it is.

I tell each child one or two positive things they have done that day

We also do the best part/hardest part of the day. I like to hear what his hardest part of the day was, because it gives so much insight to what he's worrying about. I also used to just make up my own bedtime stories for my son (we saved books for regular times), but now that's he's older (5) we do progressive bedtime stories....I start the story, he adds a part, I add on to his part, he adds on to my part....and so on. Really helps him explore his imagination and its usually pretty amazing some of the story lines he comes up with and where the story ends up. I only wish now that I had taken the time to record these stories, because they are really so fantastic and special to me. So if you ever decide to do this, use your cell (it'll be inconspicuous) and record the story. Imagine him using them later with him own kids!!!

We do the "what was the best, saddest, happiest, most surprising etc" at dinner. but at bedtime after prayers we did I am going to kiss your whole face. I would kiss my sons face on the forehead, chin each cheek and one on the nose. then he would do mine. we could not go to bed without it.