Is Lying Down with Your Kids Until They Fall Asleep a Bad Habit?
by Sami Cone
Feb 19, 2018
There was only one piece of advice I heard endlessly while pregnant that rings true today now that my kids are teenagers: it goes by so fast.
It's hard during the sleepless nights with a newborn, the long days with a toddler and even the weeks spent potty training, to imagine your baby will one day be applying to college, but it happens in the blink of an eye.
So it would only make sense that some parents would want to soak up as much of their babies as they can (especially while our kids still want to be around us as parents!), but 24/7 companionship isn't always the best answer.
A recent article on TodaysParent.com claims that "Lying down with your kids until they fall asleep is not a bad habit". The author explains the basic tenets of attachment parenting, which include child-centred practices like feeding on demand, baby-wearing and yes, co-sleeping, seem to fall in line with her parenting values.
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She goes on to say the following about her daughter:
The truth is, she will learn to fall asleep on her own soon enough. We won’t be sending her to university with a clone of ourselves that she can snuggle in her dorm room. Before we know it, there will be closed doors and independence, and we will pine for the days when she needed to feel our hand on her back before she felt safe enough to drift to sleep.
And she's not alone. If you recall, we recently shared an article where Kourtney Kardashian claimed her parenting secret was co-sleeping and bed-sharing with her kids.
Sure, our kids most likely will not need to share a bed with mom or dad in their freshman dorm, but the question shouldn't be what they won't be doing in 18 years; instead, we should be asking what healthy habits we need to lay as a foundation as soon as possible so our children feel secure in our love while still developing independently from us.
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In an article on the danger of sleep props, we remind readers that while the majority of sleep props don't pose actual danger to our children, co-sleeping with infants can actually be deadly.
Lying down with your kids until they fall asleep may in fact help them get to sleep, but there is no guarantee they will stay asleep or sleep any better as a result of the process. If anything, it can cause a literal rude awakening when babies and toddlers wake only to realize mommy or daddy has left them.
So while some may not view lying down with your child to help them get to sleep as a bad habit, they also might not realize the other potential negative effects the practice could have on their children in the long run.
Sami Cone
Best-Selling Author & Speaker
Sami Cone is the best-selling author of "Raising Uncommon Kids", is known as the "Frugal Mom" on Nashville's top-rated talk show "Talk of the Town" and educates over a million listeners every day on her nationally syndicated "Family Money Minute". She is proud to call Nashville home with her husband, Rick, and their two ‘tweenage' children.
