“It’s Bedtime”

Bedtime negative behaviors. my 5 year old just will not settle down. I get really frustrated with him. I don't feel like I can do the rule of three or extra chores when he is supposed to be going to sleep, and if I tell him he has earned them for the morning, the consequence doesn't seem real to him. My husband's solution is to give him three warnings, and then spank him. I am beginning to hate bedtime. Any ideas?

Play a game called "It's time to go to bed" where you give an instruction, and all your children run to their rooms and get into their beds. Then you come into the rooms and praise and cheer and be silly and give them a treat for following instructions so well.

Play the game multiple times until you can declare that they have mastered going to bed. Then tell you children that you are going to tell them "It's time to go to bed" that night and they will need to do the same thing and then you will give them a treat then too. For a week practice the game periodically with lots of praise and treats, including at bedtime, and then after a week the treats stop because the skill is a habit. That is what I did and many others have done.

I am just guessing that your children need to be praised more for the good things they do. Lots of times we forget to praise our children for getting into bed and bringing us tooth brushes and things like that. Those little things are signs of respect and obedience and should be praised.