One night recently, I tucked my youngest daughter in for bed, as usual.
But she just didn’t fall asleep.
What on earth is going on? Maybe starting back to school has her keyed up?
“You ok honey? Do you need anything?” I asked, one of the many times I walked by her room while I was getting ready for bed.
“Nope, I’m fine!” she chirped.
Another pass by her room, those bright brown eyes were still wide awake.
What was going on??
Maybe she isn’t getting enough exercise. She probably needs to be more physically active to get tired.
I poked my head into her room again, raising my eyebrows. “Do you need some Melatonin or anything?”
“Nope, I’m fine!” she replied again, wide awake.
Hm. Two hours had passed since I’d tucked her in. It was getting close to MY bedtime now. And I was still fretting.
Gosh, she is going to be so tired tomorrow! (And we all know what that means- tough day tomorrow!)
I moved into problem solving, as my resolve strengthened for this to not happen again.
I’ll talk to her about exercise, and I’ll make sure to do some running around with her to get her heart rate up after school to wear her out. Maybe we need to sign her up for a sport. And I’ll ask to see if she’s feeling anxious, maybe something happened at school.
Fast forward to the next morning, when over breakfast, my husband commented that her echo alarm went off at midnight.
(She slept right through it).
“Why did your alarm go off at midnight?” he inquired.
“I set it to do a Vampire Spell at midnight!” she replied, matter-of-factly. “It has to be done at midnight for it to work.”
(Aha! She was trying to stay awake until midnight…)
Both of our eyebrows shot up, and then something clicked for me, as I remembered all of the stressing and thinking I’d done last night, guessing what might be wrong, problem solving what we could do to help her sleep when this happens again.
She read our looks as concern, and continued, “But don’t worry, I would bite you both so we would all be Vampires together!”
Motivational Interviewing Tip of The Week: When you find yourself brainstorming all that could be going on with someone, and problem solving solutions for them, consider if you have been curious enough to ask first. Their motivation for what’s going on (and therefore the solutions!) may be surprising.
Love these weekly MI tips? Share with a friend! They can sign up for the weekly newsletter here!
