Colin has been sleeping in his big boy bed for a while now (since he was 22 months). We set him up in the bed before Cara came along, so that we could use the crib for her (sensible right?). Ahh... but as the theme of my blog carries on.... 'laziness'.... Cara is not yet in her crib. Why? because the crib is too wide to fit through the door, and we'd have to take it apart and set it all up again downstairs. So... she's been sleeping in a bassinet on the floor.
Anyway, it turns out that our laziness has once again prevailed as pure genius parenting. When we switched Colin into his big boy bed, the crib was still in his room, and yes, I used fear as a technique for keeping him in bed. Fear, in my opinion, is a perfectly fine parenting tactic. We told him, if he gets out of his bed, he goes right back in the crib. And the prison cage thing-a-ma-crib was in plain sight.
And what are my results? Dare I say.... the most pleasant mornings EVER??? He doesn't get out of bed until I get in his room (even though he's awake and shouting), and sometimes he's just sitting there reading a book (I do leave books and toys in his bed for him so he can play or read himself to sleep)??!?!? Yes, my friends, it can happen. Just a little bit of fear and your child will too.
James never got out of his bed on his own for the longest time. So when he would wake up in the middle o the night he would scream for us to go and get him. We would tell him to get out of bed and quietly look for daddy or mommy an it took a really long time for him to do that. Same thing for waking up in the morning. So just let me warn you that the fear thing can work but it can also backfire! We still have to remind him to get out of bed on his own in the morning rather than yell and scream for us (which just sort of ruins your morning when the first thing you hear is a screaming kid with piercing cries).
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