The Family Bed

Family beds, attachment parenting and hot little gnomes.

I'm pretty proud of my kids' sleep habits. I learned the hard way with Jord, who insisted he couldn't sleep anywhere but next to me, kicking the man out of his rightful place.... for 3 years! We had to explain, rather forcefully, that he had his own bed!

That was when I learned - sleep is a skill that needs to be taught to our children, and the earlier you start, the better off you will be.

I don't do the 'family bed', in the same way that I don't do attachment parenting. I think that if God wanted us to wear our children, he would have created us with pouches, like kangaroos. I feel the same way about swimming in the sea - its not our natural habitat, it's the shark's natural habitat. They are bigger than us and have sharper teeth, and have the added advantage of fins and gills that we don't.

I don't swim in the sea.

These things are not negotiable. They are core beliefs, firmly embedded into my psyche.

But I digress, yet again...

What I was trying to tell you was about the interesting experience I had at 3:10 this morning. I woke to a rather strange shuffling sound at the bottom of my bed. I look at the clock and then towards the source of the shuffling sound, and there stood a little gnome-like figure. Obviously rather pathetically trying to decide whether to wake me or not. I don't take too kindly to being woken at 3:10am.
"What are you doing here?" I growled.
"But mommy, I NEEEED you," the little gnome wailed.

I took pity on the gnome and I'm glad I did. He was hot, hotter than he should be. I couldn't tell you how hot because I'm not of a mind to be taking temperatures at 3:10am, I just shoved some paracetamol down his throat and put him back to bed.
I was back in bed by 3:16am.

Then around 4am I hear the shuffling sound again...

I hauled the gnome into bed with me and asked the man to kindly find somewhere else to sleep. He graciously does. Thanks love. I realise that this goes against my previously stated beliefs, but those beliefs are not as firmly embedded at 4am as they are during my waking hours...

The gnome is now firmly situated on my lap. A crowbar will not remove him.

And he is still hot. :(