The family bed - Adventures of a Working Mom
by M. Coulson
Sometimes, the family bed just happens.
I don't believe in 'the family bed' - where everyone sleeps in one cosy big bed until the kids grow old enough to want to sleep on their own. Proponents say that it makes children feel loved, and comforted by the family environment. Everyone I've talked to who sleeps in a family bed wishes the kids would get out, putting an end to sleepless nights of getting booted in the gut by a preschooler.
It's a terrible habit to break, one mum told me. My husband now sleeps in the guest room as I'm in the bed with my daughters, she confided.
I'm pretty confident that OlderSon feels perfectly loved and comforted in his big boy bed, and YoungerSon would rather be sprawled out in his crib (his big boy bed is actually in the basement, waiting for that day when he figures out how to climb out of it). And let's be honest, now that Husband and I are falling into bed about an hour after we get the kids to sleep, any Mummy-Daddy time is precious.
Most women have told me that the family bed just kind of happens, and suddenly you find that you can't kick your kids out without big tears and tantrums.
I can see how it happens. Most nights, when OlderSon walks into our room with a bad dream, we march him back to his room, rub his back, kiss him on the forehead and he goes back to sleep.
But there are some nights we just can't get up. Such is the case last week, when he marched in (why do preschoolers have such heavy feet? Like they don't have arches?) and told me at 3.30 that he had a bad dream.
"Okay, climb in," I mumbled, half-asleep and in a moment of weakness. My adorable little big boy wrapped his arms around me and quickly fell back asleep.
It was the worst. sleep. ever. I was kicked in the back for two hours, he snored in my face, and though he looked angelic, this four-year-old takes up way too much space. I got up after this fitful morning of sleep, went into the shower and tried to rouse myself. What a mistake! Of course, as I got ready for work, OlderSon lay sleeping peacefully.
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