Jane's Posts

March 9 1998

Before I even open my mouth, I know I am going to get a lot of abuse for this. I let my daughter sleep with us until she was three. When we needed some privacy, her father just carried her sleeping into her room.

After that, she fell asleep watching The Wizard of Oz every night for two straight years. I worried sometimes that as an adult she would be unable to fall asleep WITHOUT the movie. Eventually she just got tired of it, though. She started reading herself to sleep sometime in the first grade. She is ten now. She just goes into her room at 8:00 and reads until she falls asleep.

I know the current conventional wisdom is that you have to be firm and make them sleep in their rooms and all that. My experience is that kids go through different phases and you have to be flexible not rigid. Maybe your son just realized that you don't automatically fall asleep when he does and that he is missing out on some of your time. You probably desperately need a little time without him at the end of the day.

Maybe if you compromise. Let him fall asleep in your bed while you are in the living room. Or let him leave the door open as long as he stays in the room. Or let him have a radio. Or do what I did and just put a vcr in his room and let barney sing him to sleep.

jane