"I took away her alarm clock"

As soon as Big Sister was able to read time, she became enamored with the clock. "What time do we need to leave?"  " How many minutes till bed time?"

And she wanted an alarm clock like her big brothers' (silly girl)


So two Christmas' ago I bought an alarm clock and she loved knowing what time she needed to get up. She would often tell me she fell asleep at 8:12. She would watch the clock till she fell asleep.

This year she started popping her head up if she was disturbed and looking at the clock, then start crying "I can't fall asleep! It's 10:00 and I can't sleep."

She had been sleeping when she was disturbed!

For awhile I just grew frustrated....Little Sister needs to go to bed after Big Sister is asleep, otherwise neither of them sleep and school mornings are impossible.
But if Little Sister made any noise going to bed....Big Sister would be awake crying and then Little Sister would be crying!!!!

Finally  (I am a little slow) I took the clock....actually I unplugged it and put it under the bed.
Problem solved!

Now, she might be disturbed, but she rolls over and falls back to sleep, not the crying wide awake response we had when there was a clock to check!

I am still not sure why the time was so important...did she really think she hadn't been sleeping for two hours?

She still worries about the time, checking her watch during the day, but night time has definitely settled a bit.

I also gave her permission to come downstairs if she gets disturbed when the others are going to bed, she has not used that very often.