Calming down the little ones at the end of a long day can sometimes present a challenge for parents. Warm baths and bedtime stories don’t always do the trick. One young mother found a unique and humorous way to calm her daughters down in the evening and it works like a charm!
The Boston mom came home at the end of a normal day and noticed that her daughters, ages 3 and 4, were specially wound up and could see that bedtime was going involve lots of arguing and tears. Tired herself, she decided to try something different to alleviate the bedtime tension.
Both of her daughters have sensory processing deficits so this mom, also a hospice nurse, tried to think of a way to add some calm to their day as well as make it fun and entertaining. So, she bought the girl’s glow-in-the-dark Halloween pajamas. That evening, she had them put the pajamas on and then informed them that they had to “charge” the pajamas for them to actually glow. How did she tell them to “charge” the pajamas? The girls were told that they had to lay still and quiet under the lights for a period of time.
At the end of a long day, excited at the prospect of turning out the lights and seeing the designs on their sleepwear come to life, the girls gladly laid under the lights and didn’t move. Emma and Hannelore didn’t take long to calm as they waited for their pajamas to charge and inevitably fell asleep without all of the end of the day drama! From that point on, the creative and caring mom would put the pajamas back in the drawers during the day so they were hidden from any light. At the end of the day, after bath time and the other end of the daily routines, the girls couldn’t wait to put on their pajamas and lay still and quiet while they charged.
She later posted a picture of the girls staring diligently at the ceiling in their pajamas on Facebook, claiming “I’m not sorry!” Why would she be? Her daughters were given a fun and successful way to calm themselves at the end of the day without meltdowns and tears. After they were calmed, they actually looked forward to turning out the lights in their beds and going to sleep for the evening. It looks like they’ll be wearing their Halloween pajamas all year long!
