Up until recently my daughter had always slept in her own bed. I just had to take her into her room and lay her down. Now she wants to sleep with mommy all of the time. Since I am a single mother it is not a huge issue but I enjoy sleeping in my bed by myself. What can I do to help her understand that she needs to sleep in her own bed.
Maybe take her to pick out some neat big girl stuff for her room. If she feels like the room is her own and she's got some cool stuff in there that she has picked out, maybe she'll want to spend more time in her room.
Hi S.. We had an issue with our daughter not wanting to sleep in her own bed unless my husband or I slept with her. We learned a trick from Super Nanny that worked for us. I am not sure if you want to do it or not, but it works. When your daughter gets out of her bed pick her up, do not make eye contact with her, do not talk to her, & take her & put her right back to bed. You will probably have to repeat this several times. The first couple of nights my husband spent about an hour picking her up & putting her right in bed. You have to ignore her too. She will be talking & might even be upset, but you remain calm & all you are doing is just picking her up & putting her right back in the bed. It does work! YOU must remain calm though. The longer you allow her to sleep with you, the harder it will be to break. If you do not mind her sleeping with you, then I would let her. But if you know down the road you will not want her sleeping with you, you need to break her of it now. If you have any other questions on how we did this, feel free to email me ____@____.com. I hope this helps.
I always suggest the cold turkey approach. I t has always worked for me. Just put him in his bed and he will probally get out but just keep putting him back. And dont give in because he is very smart he will use that and know it is your weekness.
Is she scared of the dark? If so, you might put a nightlight in her room. Maybe she's having bad dreams, in which case, just remind her that you're in the next room and she'll be fine in her room. Sleeping with you might not be a big problem now, but if it continues, i'm sure it won't be as easy to get an 8 year old to sleep in her own bed. The thing to do is nip it in the bud. She can do it because she has been doing it. Just find out why and deal with that.
My daughter will be 3 in November, and we still keep a baby gate on her bedroom door to keep her in her room. I love the snuggles too, but I keep the overnight stays to special occasions and I explain to her that Mommy needs to rest by herself sometimes so she has the extra energy to play in the morning. Maybe you could offer her a special treat for the morning if she's able to stay in her own bed the whole night??
Good luck!
My son who will be three in three weeks, had a problem staying in bed. He is allowed to "read" in bed but not get up. I play soft music and keep a light on. Normally he is asleep withing a half an hour with a book on his face. It turned bed time into something he likes to do by letting him read his books.
Maybe you can try that. It works for us most nights.
Because of the divorce I would not worry about it right now. She may need to be close to you, she is still very young. I would let her sleep with you and once she has fallen asleep put her back in her bed she might wake up and come back in but for right now I would just comfort her during this time. As time allows ask her why she wants to sleep with you there may be a problem or simply she just wants to sleep with you. If the later is the case I would offer her the following: You can sleep with mommy on Friday and/or Sat nights, during the week we need our rest for work and daycare (?).. She will view it as a treat and begin to sleep on her own pretty soon the weekends will go away or you both may actually enjoy it---sleep in, late breakfast cartoons. make it girls day!
Of course if there is a problem you will need to address it. So talk to her even at 3 yrs old you would be surprised at what they know!
I had trouble with my oldest son on this matter too. He is now 3 1/2 yrs old and sleeps in his own bed. We bought him a toddler bed and he didn't want anything to do with it! I don't think he ever laid in it. Then, we bought him a regular twin bed and now he absolutely loves it! You can try to buy some movies about sleeping in their own beds and maybe even try some books.
Hi! S.,
Children in general have a lot going on in there little heads, all the time. Does your daughter realise her daddy isn't there? If she didn't before she may be figuring that out now. You are her only family at home. She may be suffering a type of " seperation anxiety. " She's too young to get that across to anyone, at the age of three. This might be her way of saying it. When my (now 17) daughter was three she went through this phase of crying every time she saw herself in a picture. When she was four she finally got it out. Because she was alone in the picture she thought we left her totally alone.
All I had to do was say, " Who do you think was taking the picture, silly? " She realised she wasn't alone after all.That ended the crying. Maybe she needs to figure out mom isn't going any where.
maybe you can bring here bed in your room and put it next to yours and little by little put her bed towards her room until she's weened....just a thought
Hi S..My name is Keesha and I have the same issue with my daughter who is 3, she'll be 4 on the 14th of this month. I kind of blame myself for this problem because a year ago my husband went to Iraq and i let her sleep with me and every since then she wont stay in her bed. She'll fall asleep in the bed with me and my husband, we'll put her in her bed, sh'll sleep in there for 4 hours at the most and she's back crawling in our bed. I've tried to get stricter about it. I'm just so tired at 3:00 in the morning that I don't take her back in her room like I should.my husband is going back to Iraq in March and I'm afraid it'll only get worse. I feel she's too old for this, but continues to do it? What advice have you been given if any?
