Seven tips to getting Spanish children to Sleep (These tips may work for other nationalities as well)

Here is a riddle for you.....How many American Nannies does it take to put seven Spanish children to bed?
Is it:
(a) 4
(b) Zero, you need a Spaniard for that stuff!
(c)All you have is one so deal with it.

See blog post for the answer....

Last night I took care of the kids while Sandro and Rebeca went to dinner with some of their friends. They have some friends in town from other parts of Spain and these families have children as well. So not only did I have Marco(8) and Paula(10) but I had: Suzi(8), Inez(9), Martina(5), Rafael "Rafa"(5), and Alejandra(4). Honestly they were all pretty good and did not really give me any trouble at all. The last three, however, are staying at the hotel and thus had to be given special attention if I were to entertain any hope of them going to sleep. At first they were going to be put in Sandro and Rebecca's room and when the parents returned from dinner, they would just be picked up and quickly returned to the hotel. Unfortunately not all things work out like they should and the youngest, Alejandra, got quite upset when I took them upstairs to their room. Obviously that is completely understandable, you have a random English-speaking nanny trying to tell you what to do, you are sleepy and in a house that you are not accustomed to spending a large amount of time in, and now you are being asked to sleep in a random bed???? I quickly took the children back to the living room and had them relax on the couch and thus commenced the seven steps to getting Spanish children to go to sleep...

1. Give them ample warning that bedtime is coming. If possible, I like to give two or three warnings, the first being thirty minutes prior to bedtime the second, ten minutes, and possibly, for the little ones, a third at five minutes prior to bedtime.

2. Help them relax by turning off all stimuli such as televisions and gaming devices. Do not allow them to play with an iPhone or similar object, it will just cause them to stay awake longer. When adjusting the lights, gradually turn off random lights. Do not turn all lights off at once, this will result in immediate panic. I generally leave a couple of dim lights on so that I can see a little and it helps them feel safer.

3. Put on soothing music. I think it is good to choose one song and put it on replay. If the children are young they generally don't notice and I think the repetitiveness helps to relax them. The song I chose for tonight was "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven. Side note, did you know that when you put your iPhone in a cup, it immediately makes the speaker about five times louder? Nifty trick, I know.

4. Give them warm chocolate milk. Not to be confused with hot chocolate. This is "leche con cocao" or milk with nestle instant chocolate milk mix. This little bit of warmth will help the kiddies who aren't sleeping at their regular home, feel a little more relaxed and calmed.

5. Tell the children to lay down and gesture with your hands(because let's be honest they have no idea what "lay down" means), making your hands into a pillow under your head is especially affective.

6. Make sure that when the children ask questions like "cuando mis padres se estar aquí?" you say "no se". This should be fine since that is pretty much all you have said all night. Sometimes it is necessary to ignore questions. In my case it worked beautifully and Rafa went right to sleep. Note: if the child asks a question repeatedly such as: "puedo llamar a mis padres" go ahead and let them call their mother or father, this might help you get them to sleep faster.

7. At this point if the kids aren't asleep yet, lay down on the floor by them and don't make any movements, it should take five to ten minutes for the kids to fall soundly asleep and then you will be free to do as you please.

In the event that one child wakes up, quickly comfort them and return them to their area of the couch, being as quiet as possible..Because if they all wake up, you are basically screwed.

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into what I did last night. Have a wonderful day! =)

~Ames