When I found out that I was pregnant, for the first time, I start reading and learning about parenting from books, newspaper, old wife's tale from old folks and friends. One frequently asked question about parenting was, should the child sleeps with the parents. This reminds me of a story from my friend. True story that happen to her.
At that point of time, my friend only has a daughter and she had been sleeping with them since birth. One fine night, when both husband and wife was in the mid of doing it, they didn't realize that their little girl, about three years old then, was not sound asleep yet. She saw part of it and went back to sleep.
The next morning she woke up and went and sat on mummy's tummy and went up and down and up and down and asked "Why did daddy play horsey with you so late last night in the dark?" Oh boy! What an embarrassing moment! She went to the office and told all of us. We had a good laugh. I was pregnant then. After her tale, I told myself, no way that my kids were to sleep with me.
So from the day I took my son home from the hospital, I let him sleep in a cot in a separate room. The first year, with my eldest son, my mum was staying with me, so my mum sleeps with him but never in the same bed. I want him to get use to having a bed of his own. By the time he was one, I got him a single size mattress, lay it on the floor without a bed. Training for him to not fall off the bed.
When I got my second child, I added another queen size mattress on the floor next to my eldest son's single bed plus the baby cot by the side. The first few months, I would sleep with both in their room. By the time my second was able to walk, he choose to sleep on the mattress with his brother, in a room of their own. When they get older, I upgraded them to a single bed each but still share the same room.
Every night at bedtime, I would change them into their pyjamas and instead of a bedtime story from the story book, I would switch off the lights, lay down besides them and teach them about facts of life and all those general knowledge that a child should know. They would ask questions, we would joke around and have a few laughs before bed. In my opinion, happy thoughts before bed will come with sweet dreams instead of nightmares. My two sons had never before come running to my room scared and unable to sleep. Unless if one of them were sick, I would sleep in their room to keep an eye on them. So far so good.
Just last month my youngest son, 14 years old now, said he missed those days where we would chat before bed, so I told him maybe we should start doing it again. With school homework and t.v and handphone texting and facebooking, my sons normally do not have so much time for me now a days. Yeah I missed those days too, listening to their funny yet innocent questions and statements.
Those days they were eager to learn from me, like a sponge, now most of the time I would be learning from them. Thanks for reading and happy parenting to you. Any interesting or funny parenting tale to share?
