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My daughter is almost 15. She is a good kid in every way except one.... She's developed a habit of staying up very late. We live in a small apartment and, all night, all I hear is her going back/forth to the kitchen, opening the fridge, taking something (milk or juice), going back to her room, dancing, click-click-click on the computer, etc etc etc.
Last night, I was up until after 3am with this! I kept telling her to GO TO BED! She would quiet down for a while but then back to the nonsense. She actually stayed up all night and didn't go to sleep until 10pm tonight.
I am not getting a good night's sleep at all. I find myself constantly waking up all night long to tell her to turn off lights, get out of kitchen, go to bed, etc etc etc. This isn't something that just developed over the summer ---- she would do it a few times a week during the school year, too.
I am at my wits end with this. I need to be able to sleep without worrying about her leaving the fridge open or drinking a gallon of milk in one day or cooking something and falling asleep while it's cooking and causing a fire. I've considered a lock on the fridge and the pantry, but that just doesn't sit right with me.
Does she get up when she needs to and stay alert during school/job? Homework done etc? Some people need less sleep. If it is keeping you up I'd just explain to her she needs to stay in her room and limit her activities to quiet ones like reading after a certain time because you need your sleep and the noise keeps you up. I'll admit I don't get the concern about whether she's drinking milk at night.
I don't have any advice about how to convince her to go to bed. You can setup rules and consequences.
I can suggest for your health that you seek treatment regarding your anxiety. It's not your worry that she'll drink a gallon of milk or leave the refrigerator open or start a fire....unless she has left the refrigerator door open or fallen asleep while cooking. I doubt that she probably has, and it's probably your anxiety. Please help yourself with your anxiety, because your daughter is at home rather than a boyfriends house or an unknown location.
reading after a certain time because you need your sleep and the noise keeps you up
The problem with this, unless the D shares the same room, noise from a computer keyboard shouldn't keep up the mother. It's not noisy to type on a keyboard. Nor should opening the fridge or walking around. If she lived in an apartment, these would be typical sounds.
Why am I pointing this out? Because if the mom says typing on the keyboard keeps me awake, I don't think the D will find that to be a valid concern.
Does she get up when she needs to and stay alert during school/job? Homework done etc? Some people need less sleep. If it is keeping you up I'd just explain to her she needs to stay in her room and limit her activities to quiet ones like reading after a certain time because you need your sleep and the noise keeps you up. I'll admit I don't get the concern about whether she's drinking milk at night.
She gets up when she has to, school work is always done, homework is always done.
I've explained to her countless times about staying in her room, reading, being quiet but she's not doing it.
The concern about the milk is that milk is $5 a gallon. I cannot buy a gallon of milk every other day because she wants to be up all night. Milk is also very fattening (even 2%) and it's not healthy to drink that much milk. (she is not even close to being fat but with all this milk drinking, I'm sure it's going to catch up with her)
The problem with this, unless the D shares the same room, noise from a computer keyboard shouldn't keep up the mother. It's not noisy to type on a keyboard. Nor should opening the fridge or walking around. If she lived in an apartment, these would be typical sounds.
Why am I pointing this out? Because if the mom says typing on the keyboard keeps me awake, I don't think the D will find that to be a valid concern.
We live in a tiny apartment. Our room doors are right next to one another on a diagonal. The noises she makes are keeping me up because I am constantly waking up all night hearing her walking back and forth, lights on, fridge opening/closing, etc.
I don't have any advice about how to convince her to go to bed. You can setup rules and consequences.
I can suggest for your health that you seek treatment regarding your anxiety. It's not your worry that she'll drink a gallon of milk or leave the refrigerator open or start a fire....unless she has left the refrigerator door open or fallen asleep while cooking. I doubt that she probably has, and it's probably your anxiety. Please help yourself with your anxiety, because your daughter is at home rather than a boyfriends house or an unknown location.
She has left the fridge door slightly open on more than one occassion. I guess she "closed" it but it didn't close all the way. As far as cooking..... NO ONE should be "cooking" or "microwaving" anything at 2am!
I am glad she's home rather than out and about at night but this is ridiculous. I need to be able to sleep peacefully and not have to worry about all this.
Are you more bothered by the hours she keeps or the fact that she is disturbing your sleep? I sympathize with night owls, I'm one. Some of us just don't need more than 6 or 7 hours of sleep. I've always been up long after the rest of the household was in bed.
Since you say she is a generally good kid, I'm not sure why you are worried about her evening activities. If you're really concerned she'll leave the stove on, I don't think it's unreasonable to say no cooking late at night. Getting drinks and snacks at all hours is pretty typical teenage behavior. And the dancing and computer typing really doesn't sound like something that would make much noise.
Do you sleep with your bedroom door open? If so, I'd close it, and then I'd put in earplugs. I swear by them.
She gets up when she has to, school work is always done, homework is always done.
I've explained to her countless times about staying in her room, reading, being quiet but she's not doing it.
The concern about the milk is that milk is $5 a gallon. I cannot buy a gallon of milk every other day because she wants to be up all night. Milk is also very fattening (even 2%) and it's not healthy to drink that much milk. (she is not even close to being fat but with all this milk drinking, I'm sure it's going to catch up with her)
Honestly it sounds more like you just want her to go to sleep because ..... you just do. Don't buy more milk than you can. If other people in your family drink milk then sit down and have a talk about the fact of limited resources and respecting that-same with wandering around at night. But you can't force a person to sleep because you think they should and you find it annoying that they don't. You can however expect respect and courtesy of being quiet and leaving enough milk for the rest of the family to have cereal.
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