We only have a family bed. We live in a one bedroom house and we’ve never owned a crib. We safely co-sleep. There are super easy and inexpensive things you can do to make it to safely co-sleep, for us it was a really good choice and the right answer for a lot of craziness in the day for us. Sometimes it’s one big happy family bed and is still the best way for us to all feel close and safe. That’s our solution. There will be at time when our boys won’t sleep in our bed, sometime before they’re married! It’s a really nice way to go to sleep, with our kids.
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Awesome t-hirt, btw. I slept with my parents until I was 7. It just felt right. My son still sleeps with us even though he has his own room and bed. We started putting him in his bed after he would fall asleep but my husband couldn’t sleep and he kept me awake ’cause he was too worried about him. So now he’s almost 3 and it still feels like he’s just too far away when we have him sleep in his room. We just feel more comfortable and relaxed when he sleeps with me and my husband.
All of our 4 kids have slept with us till they were at least 4 or 5. At one point we had 3 in our bed. Now we are down to just the 2 year old.
We only have one bed too! Our 2 girls (ages 11 and 4) have slept with us since they were born. This is not unusual in Hispanic and other latin cultures. There were 4 of us kids growing up and we all slept together like a pack of wolves on 2 large queen mattress pushed together in a single bedroom. We did this until we each grew up and left home. There was nothing crazy or sexual or anything about it. It just was and I liked it. I would not want my child sleeping alone in a room, esp. with all the reports of kids being stolen out of their beds while their parents were in another room.
my four month old sleeps with me. It makes the nights easier with breastfeeding and she sleeps longer in my bed.
Our 2 girls only napped with us. I am a heavy sleeper and was terrified that I would sufficate them when they were infants. AS they got older I couldn’t get all of our sleep schedules in synce, they also liked their own rooms. My husband and I only have a full size bed, now we share it with 2 dogs and a cat!
I can understand where your coming from as me and my husband lived in a one bedroom house when we had our first child and we could not afford to buy a baby cot or even move home to a 2 bedroom. Our baby slept in a Moses basket for the first 6 months until we got a second hand cot from my sister. After my little girl was just over a year old she found her way into our bed and 5 years later she still camped in our bed LOL.
Luckily we purchased a queen size bed as we have a cockier spaniel dog who has decided to join the there of us on colds nights,
wow i thought i was strange having my girls sleep with us didt know alot of people have ther childern sleep with them i have 5 children age 16mo.3yrs 5yrs 13yrs 14yrs and 3 youngest sleep with us we try to get them to s;eep in there room but by end of night there in bed with us.And sometimes we all just sleep in living room.My children feel loved and are very open with us.
We only have a family bed. We live in a one bedroom house and we’ve never owned a crib. We safely co-sleep. There are super easy and inexpensive things you can do to make it to safely co-sleep, for us it was a really good choice and the right answer for a lot of craziness in the day for us. Sometimes it’s one big happy family bed and is still the best way for us to all feel close and safe. That’s our solution. There will be at time when our boys won’t sleep in our bed, sometime before they’re married! It’s a really nice way to go to sleep, with our kids
I’m amazed to hear that you parents can get a good night’s sleep with your kids in your bed! My husband and I have a king bed and we feel each and every single wiggle, kick, and head butt when the kids are in there with us. I have the two wiggliest worms in the planet. I have no problem sleeping in the same room with my kids, which I often do if my husband is traveling, but in the same bed absolutely not. I kicked them out as soon as they hit about six months and became mobile.
I just wanted to tell parents to be careful. I’m a private investigator and have seen cases were the babies were killed. On case the parent rolled over on the baby and it couldn’t breath and died. The other one the bed was next to the wall and ended up between the bed and wall and was also found dead.
I would’nt take the risk.
How … how did you come about having a second child when you slept with your first one ( and still do)!!! many questions come to my mind at this point.!
I have 3 children 10, 7, and 6 weeks! i sometimes sleep with my 6 week old, when hes having a hard time on his own.. but thats it! I have found many ways to bond and be close to my children. But i like to think bed time is bed time and my bed is a mommy/daddy bed… unless of course they are having a hard time sleeping, have night mares etc etc!!
My kids got their own beds/bedrooms as soon as they slept through the night. Sleeping with my a$$hold ex-husband was enough torture who raped me every night was bad enough.
You’re a single mom though, right? So who’s the “we” in your statement?
Sleeping with the kids in the bed is the fastest way to kill your marriage.
We’ll let our son sleep with us when he’s sick or if he has a particularly scary dream. But that’s maybe 2-3 nights a year. Otherwise after 9 is grown-up time.
I’ve often thought that attachment parenting is not healthy. Especially when it comes to the mother-son bond. I’ve seen too many moms have an unhealthy attachment to their sons, often continuing on into adulthood and interfering with their child’s adult relationships.
Wow, is your husband anti-children? Mine loves the feel of our little one snuggling up between us. You might want to look into what “attachment parenting” means; by defnition, it’s limited to a healthy relationship where the child is emotionally supported to feel confident enough to have good social relationships with both family and others. Also, do you know of any overly close mother-son relationships where the father is present and an active parent?
I am shocked by all of the parents on here that share a bed w/ their kids! I can kinda see the only 1 bdrm thing, or the very large families but still, i slept on a blowup mattress in the 1 bdrm apt my kids and I had and then on the klick klack couch in the LR. My boys are 6 & 4 and they are bad at kicking & hitting; I can’t tell you how many times I woke up from being smacked in the face by a hard or arm! (haha) I NEEDED the quiet time at night to sleep and rest in my bed alone. I also agree with Jess, it kills a relationship/marriage. I only had my boys sleep w/ me while breastfeeding so I could rest. As soon as they slept through the night they were in their OWN beds!!
I think a child can be raised feeling confident and emotionally supported without having to co-sleep. I have noticed with some friends who insist on having their children sleep with them past 6mos- 1 year tend to have the kids that tend to stress out more if the mom needs to run errands or leave the kid to be watched by a sitter. Is it possible there could be too much attachment with the lack of even introducing some little bit of separation, like their own bed?
My husband and I agreed before having children that our bed is our bed. Even if they have a bad dream, I go in and comfort them and cuddle them for a minute but then explain that its time for them to go back to sleep in their bed. My 7 year old will once in a great while get to sleep in bed with me for a few hours until my husband gets home from work, but that privilege is given out as a reward. I personally have also wondered how in the world the you get 2 kids when 1 sleeps with you, also what the heck time are you putting these kids down to bed, mine are in bed asleep by 8:30 and then I am up till around 11:30. My husband and I don’t like to “plan ahead” for adult time, family bed kills the element of surprise lol.
We are a co-sleeping family but I’ve been trying to break that habit. Our son is almost 5. It was nice when he was smaller and I could feel him snuggle up next to me. Now, it’s a constant thing for him to flip and flop on the bed and keep me awake at night. We’ve tried everything we can think of – bought him a new bed set and furniture that he picked out himself, sleeping with him in his bed until he falls asleep (he ends up back in our bed somehow), putting him back in his bed when he gets in ours. The list is endless. There are nights that he has bad dreams and I don’t fight him when he wants in bed with me. If anybody has any other ideas on what I can try please share them. This mommy has got to get some sleep…and quality time with daddy
Hi, I’m 40 and my daughter is 13. She is 5’8″, free-spirited, intelligent, an incredible dancer and actress, and she can sing too. She’s performed on stage in lead musicals and dance recitals and has met famous people. My daughter still sleeps in the bed with me! While I know I could be old-fashioned and say very negative things about the damages of this, but the truth of the matter is the fact that we feel comfortable and protected. I was blessed because she wasn’t suffocated by my body weight. When she was an infant and toddler, we became our own team unit because her dad worked 3rd shift and I was alone. I was not a fan of having her so far away from me (in her own nicely decorated room). Her father and I also were in a very rocky marriage and it didn’t even bother us that he slept in her room and me and the baby slept in the master bedroom. Long story short, we divorced and the move to a new house when my daughter turned 9 was even more frightening for her. We stayed together and we make it work. She still has a new room and it is very nicely decorated and I’m confident that she will move into it when she is secure and ready.
We turned it into a project. We wrote a children’s book about the situation. Mayim, I’d love to send you a copy of it because it focuses on my daughter’s perspective as to why she dislikes staying in the room alone. We self-illustrated the piece, as well. The main character is a caricature of my daughter. It’s entitled, “Mommy’s Bed is Best.”
I think this is just unbelievable to me! One of them being 13 years old?? I think the parents have a fear of being separated from them. It’s sick.
My daughter is 8 months and sleeps through the night from around 7pm to 7am and when she wakes in the morning for her morning feed my husband and I bring her into bed with us and we wake up together and sometimes have a bit more rest. She likes seeing both of us in the morning and having us talk to her about what we dreamed about. Sometimes she sleeps with us at night if she has a cold and can’t settle herself. But even if she did sleep in our bed all night, every night.. I’m sure we would find some other spontaneous places to have fun.
I got custody Of my daughter at the end of her first grade year in school. I was living in a small 3 bedroom house with my son and brother. I slept in a full size bed and we shared that bed for until I got us a pair of twin beds thought a trift store. WE continued sharing the bed room for about a year more before her brother moved out.
The whole time we shared the bed room I was afraid that DHS would find out and take her away from me. She now have her brother old room and her brother had to move back home so, we now share the room. Yes we are crowded, but we are doing the best that we can The house is my Dad whom move in with my sister and her family
I am reading most of the comments on here and most of those defending co-sleeping with older children are selfish reasons. They feel to far away, it feels safer etc… You are damaging your children.
Are you going to sleep with them while they are in college?
What are you going to do when your 11 year old tells someone at school that they share a bed with mommy and daddy? You need to realize that co-sleeping with children in many states over the age of 3 is cause for intervention/investigation and possible removal. Learn your state laws!
Is’nt Mayim and her husband divorced?
I know parents who have shared a bed with their kids who are now grown up now and I can tell you there was no damage to any of them. No mum should be judged on sharing a bed with their children, to sleep with your child were you both feel safe and secure is hardly sick they are your children for gods sake.with so much bad going on in this world to kids this is hardly worth judging. Every child is different at night, every circumstance at home not the same.some kids need the security.