Wednesday, June 13, 2012

How To Get Children To Sleep In Their Rooms

On one of those days when I became domesticated and started changing the bed sheets, a funny story about instilling independence in my child came to my mind and brought a smile to my face. I simply have to share this! I remembered a time when my eldest was around 5 years old and she was still sleeping with hubby and me in our room.

I know, I know....I am once again showing my "bad mommy" signs but in fairness, prior to this time, our living conditions were a bit tight. We used to live in company houses (meaning they were owned by the company that hubby worked for) and we would only be allowed one room, big enough for the three of us. The rest of the rooms in the house were occupied by other employees.

To get back on track.....as I was saying, around about the time my eldest was 5, we bought our first home. Yes, home, complete with all the other rooms, all to ourselves. So I dedicated one room for my daughter.

However, since she was so used to sleeping with us, she did not want to sleep in her own room, even opting to sleep on the floor in our bedroom. I felt bad for her. Here I was the mommy wanting her daughter to have some privacy and independence and it seems that I've left it a bit too late and she may never wanna leave our side...ever!

One day while out shopping, I had a brilliant idea. I went into a bedding shop and spent about R400 (about $50) worth on bed sheets and linens. I bought new pillows and blankets, you-name-it-I-had-it. I brought it all home with me and placed it on my daughter's bed. It looked so fresh and brand new and so "I wanna sleep on you so much" that my eldest just could not resist.

And that...is how I got my daughter out of my room :-) I enticed her into sleeping on her bed :-)

So if you have problems of getting your children out of the bedroom, I'm no expert, but this could be one way of doing it. Okay, it might not also work if the child is not of right age. But hey, the easiest way would be to just do it early before they even get wind of it.

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