“Just 5 more minutes mom!”.… raise your hand if you hear this one daily in your house? Or one of these gems – I’m thirsty, my leg hurts, I can’t find my blanket, my pinky is itchy, I need to pee (nine times in an hour!) I hear a sound and many, many more excuses. I’m pretty lucky that we have a pretty good sleeper who will play quietly in her bed before drifting off to dreamland, but I also know first hand from many of my friends that kids are master negotiators at bedtime, and we often give in! It’s a parent’s right of passage to be able to navigate through the inevitable children’s bedtime stall tactics. In a recent global survey, Netflix found that 61% of us face bedtime stalling tactics by our kids. It turns out that 79% of parents worldwide are willing to make compromises with their kids at bedtime, spending an average of 20 minutes per night negotiating/begging/pleading with them to go to bed.
This same poll also found that Canadian parents stand strong at bedtime, they aren’t buying the stall tactics and don’t find their kids to be too cute, or too clever to let them stay up past their bedtime (61% disagree vs. 51 globally).
Additional Canadian stats include:
- The average time it takes Canadian parents to put their kids to bed is 18.1 minutes (vs. 17.5 minutes globally)
- 52% of Canadian parents disagree to children using stall tactics at bedtime
- 61% of Canadian parents don’t find their kids tactics too cute or clever to give in and let them stay up later
- 85% of Canadian parents agree that the last snuggle is the best (vs. 87% globally)
- 40% of Canadian parents have faced the “just 5 more minutes” negotiator
- The stall tactics of Canadian kids results in 13.2 additional minutes added to their bedtime routine (vs. 15.7 minutes globally)
Regardless of how your children negotiate or stall, we’re all going through it with you! So what is the solution? Netflix and DreamWorks Animation want to help you take back bedtime with their new Dinotrux Favorites, an entire episode of the latest hit rolled neatly into a little, perfect 5-minute package. Letting your master negotiator think they’ve gotten away with 5 more minutes by telling them they can watch an entire show.. yep, an entire show, you heard me right! In a mere 300-seconds, your kids will wander off to bed thinking they got exactly what they wanted, and you’ll be none the wiser… Parents:1, Stalling tactics: 0.
Have a bit more then 5 minutes to spare at bedtime? Netflix has a couple new releases that I know we’re excited to curl up and watch, an excuse to stay up a little bit later and enjoy some snuggle time.
