Jane was standing outside her bedroom door not wanting to come in to go to bed.  I was waiting patiently on the inside after having tried sharing information, giving choices and describing how I feel which made me decide to try some humour and imagination.

I pretended to be an airline hostess and Jane’s bedroom was the aeroplane.  We were about to close the doors and fly to Thailand so I needed her to come aboard. At first she just smiled, looked at me and said:  “No thanks. I don’t want to come aboard”.

But I know she loves flying long distance and really wants to go back to Thailand, so I pretended to talk to some people on the plane about what food to expect on the plane and the movie choices.

Within a minute Jane came in willingly and we climbed into bed and continued our role playing of passenger and hostess for a little while longer.

The bedtime was a little later than I had wanted it to be but I really had fun and felt connected at the end of the day. Jane even slept better than she usually does!