Dana Obleman: Hi, I’m Dana. I got an email the other day from a person who had done the “Sleep Sense program.” She experienced, what I would call, “A regression.” She said to me, at the end of the email, “You know, I thought this was one and done and we wouldn’t have to do this again.” I laughed a little bit to myself because I’ve been a parent for 13 years and a teacher before that. I’ve learned the hard way that nothing in parenting is ever one and done. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s not. [laughs]

When I was a teacher, I taught Grade 1. We would spend the first month of the school year, going over the rules, talking about consequences, reminding them continuously of what those rules were to make our classroom run really well. By about Christmas time, I would think “Ah, we got it. We got it. They know what the rules are. They know what the expectations are. We got this.”

They would go away for Christmas holiday, come back, and it was as if I had to start with brand new children all over again. All the rules had been forgotten. We had to go back to the drawing board. Teach everything all over again. I found that it really happened on a cycle all year long.

That’s what makes parenting certainly, not easy. You always have to be aware of re teaching the rules. I could remember with my son. We had a CD stand in the corner and he was drawn to it. He wanted to go over there. It was day in and day out, teaching him not to touch that CD rack. Again, we would have a week or two where he wouldn’t. Then one day, back he goes.

The same thing really is true with all things parenting. You will find that, throughout the course of your child’s childhood, that you have to hang out tight to your rules around sleep, in particular. I do find that developmental milestones will cause sleep aggression. Sometime, sickness causes sleep aggression.Testing the waters causes sleep aggression.

As your child becomes a toddler, it’s just common practice to test the rules. Just because they were the rule yesterday does not necessarily mean it’s the rule today. Your child will test you periodically to make sure that the rule is still a rule, that the boundaries are still the same.

That, actually, is really reassuring to the child. “Yes, OK. Everything is as it should be. Rules are still rules. Boundaries are still boundaries. Thank you. We can proceed now.” It’s only when they shift and slide around that a toddler begins think “Uh oh. Why aren’t they the rules anymore? Are these the rules?” They’re testing you everywhere you turn to see where the boundaries lie.

Really keep that in mind around potty training, around eating habits, around behavior, and certainly around sleep. I’m sorry. [laughs] It’s not one and done. Thank for watching today. Sleep well.

Transcription by CastingWords