I love bedtime with Anya.  We snuggle up together and read a story often surrounded by a menagerie of stuffed animals.  After lots of kisses and cuddles we say goodnight, I turn the light off and leave.  That’s the good bit.  Then comes the painful part – getting her to actually go to sleep!  I’ve found that as she’s getting older, she is coming up with more and more imaginative excuses not to sleep. Of course we get the usual ‘I’m thirsty’, ‘I’m hungry’, ‘I need the toilet’ type excuses but recently her imagination seems to have gone in to over-drive and here are some of her latest reasons not to sleep:

“I don’t like sleeping, it’s too hard”

“I’ve forgotten how to close my eyes”

“I think my heart is sick, it’s beating too fast”

“My eyelashes are hurting” (what?!)

Anya: “I can’t sleep”
Me: “Count sheep then” (I explain how to count sheep)
Silence.  I’m feeling smug because at least for today I’ve cracked it.  But two minutes later, this:
Anya: “I’m scared”
Me: “Why”
Anya: “I think I saw a sheep in my bedroom”

And the latest one from last night:
“I have chicken pox”

What are some of the excuses your kids use? I’d love to hear them in the comments.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone x

*I’ve linked up to Honest Mum’s brilliant blog posts.