The Bedtime Script — Free

Word-for-word language for the day's last transition — free.

Bedtime asks kids to do two hard things at once: separate from you, and power down a nervous system still processing the day. This free CARE script gives you the exact words for all of it — the wind-down warning, the routine as rails, the stall, big feelings at lights-out, the exit line that ends negotiations kindly, and the middle-of-the-night wake.

• The 6-part script, word for word
• The research, plainly: the 10,000-family study on bedtime routines (Mindell et al., Sleep, 2015)
• The 1–4 bedtime arrival read: what helps at each level
• The four classic fails to skip
• A two-homes note: one routine, both houses

Instant download · one beautiful printable PDF · part of the free CARE resource library.

Bedtime is a goodbye. Make it a soft one.