Question
My older son will be 5 next month and shares a room with my middle child, who is 3.5 years old this month. My almost-5 year old has started having nighttime fears and is coming out of his room a lot at bedtime, during the night, and in the morning after he wakes up before I go in to get him. I started using the ticket system a couple weeks ago. He gets 5 passes starting from when he is tucked in in the evening. If he exceeds the 5 passes, he has to "take a nap" the next day and go to his room for a couple hours in the afternoon to rest in order to make up for the time he is missing out on during the night. He is afraid of his room and comes out several times during the daytime "nap" as well. One problem I am having is my 3.5 year old has started bothering my almost 5 year old at bedtime and after they wake up in the morning. He sits on the edge of his bed staring at my older son, he makes funny noises over and over, hangs his legs and arms over the side of the bed, etc. in order to irritate my older son. For some reason, this really bothers my older son, maybe because he is already so anxious. He comes out of his room over and over telling me what his brother is doing (expecting me to make him stop). I take a pass each time he comes out. Many (if not most) nights, he has used up and exceeded his passes during this time before they are even asleep! So during the night, he doesn't have any motivation to stay in his bed. I guess my question is - should I be correcting my 3.5 year old? (If so, how??) Or just keep going with what I am doing and wait for my almost 5 year old to get over it? Do you have any other advice for how I can help my older son learn to stay in his bed and deal with his anxieties/fears? Thank you so much for your help!!
