Obviously, this nighttime routine was one that we couldn’t keep
up for much longer. The funny thing was that we already had 1-
2-3 Magic, and we had been successfully using counting during
the day with our daughter. But we didn’t see how counting
would help us with our little girl’s refusing to stay in bed.
Guess what? Counting is not supposed to be used for this
problem. Counting is more for controlling obnoxious behavior.
Going to bed and staying there is basically a positive behavior
that has to be encouraged with other tactics. Where would we
find those strategies?
We had to finish reading 1-2-3 Magic! We had been so
delighted with the results of counting that we hadn’t gone any
further. There was a separate chapter called “Going to Bed—and
Staying There!” There we learned the Basic Bedtime Method.
First we had to pick a bedtime and stick with it. Then, a half