Big Boy Bed
March 11, 2010
When we move out of this house we're only taking one crib with us. That's right: someone's getting himself a Big Boy Bed.
I'm not THAT nervous about it. For one thing, he's been sleeping in twin beds at both grandparents' house for over a year now. He still doesn't know what to do with a pillow and scorns the concept of blankets (WHY?) but he doesn't freak out and he falls asleep, and the thing I suppose most people worry about -- falling out -- has never happened. And if it did? Eh. He'd survive. I'm sure the spill he took on our front sidewalk today produced worse injuries than a potential bedtime crash.
I wasn't worried about it at all, in fact, until a few weekends ago when the kids and I spent the night at my parents' house. My mom put them to bed and I was downstairs talking and suddenly I heard PITTER PATTER THUMP THUMP THWACK! Pause. Then again: PITTER PATTER THUMP THUMP THWACK! As per my Ignore Unless There Is Blood And/Or Earsplitting Screams Policy, I let this go. It wasn't until the morning that I discovered the nineteen toy trains tangled up in Jack's sheets and blankets. I assumed my mother had given him the toys when he went to sleep, until I turned to leave the bedroom and spied the train table directly across from the door in the loft. AHA!
The following weekend we left the kids with my in-laws (WHAT. We're BUSY.) and when we drove down to pick them up, my mother-in-law wanted to tell me the funniest! story! Apparently she put Jack down for his nap earlier that day and he was so quiet she thought he MUST be sleeping! But maybe a half hour after she put him down, he scared the you know what out of her when she saw him standing behind her in the kitchen, silent as an up-to-no-good toddler and grinning ear to ear. Jack had removed himself from his bed, went down the huge, scary, hardwood staircase all by himself and WAITED for his grandmother to STUMBLE UPON HIM.
Obviously I didn't find this as funny as she did.
After he pulled the after hours toy stunt at my parents' house again, I started to wonder if this was going to be a Thing. The Boy Who Would Not Stay In Bed. I've mentioned before that Jack loves his crib and could play in there for hours. (And does! You BET I take advantage of that!) It's also the place we dump him when he's out of control or fighting with his sister or whining one of his parents to death. People tell us not to make his bed the Punishment Spot, but I actually think it's a great place for him. He calms down, he's happy in there and I know he's safe and contained. When we move and trade the crib for a twin bed I am SCREWED.
So maybe we need to keep it for a while. Like my mom said when I brought it up with her, "Too many changes all at once!" But he can't sleep in there FOREVER (and I can't think of one kid his age in our circle of friends who is still sleeping in a crib -- chalk up ANOTHER Parenting Fail!) I thought about transitioning him to a toddler bed if we were going to stay in this house, but since we plan to stash him in his own room in the next house, we'll go directly to a Big Boy Bed with pillows and blankets and gosh darn it he WILL learn to appreciate warm toasty covers!
Whenever we transition him, I think he'll sleep just fine. It's the getting OUT of bed. Thinking he is his own BOSS. This is not good. Phillip suggesting just locking him into his room, but my brother did this and every morning they found my nephew curled up on the floor in front of the door. OH YAY.
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I'm going to start boycotting the subject line
We keep the kids' rooms toy-free for this very reason. I would also put a gate on the door too. My girls' big bed has extra tall and extra long rails. There is a space for them to get in and out at the end of the bed- and they use it. But they do not get out of bed unless Mom or Dad tells them too.
I was surprised they weren't running around the room at night initially. But figured out that they had no clue they could get out of bed! (we didn't let them climb in at first- we lifted them up and into bed) When I became pregnant, we had to stop the lifting, so I taught them to get in and out. But I guess they equate that with when mommy or dadda is there?
Perhaps I have perfect-angel children? I don't know. But it's a non-issue at our house. Our issue is their jumping on the bed, peering out the windows, and kicking the walls when they "don't wanna take naps."
Big Boy Bed
We actually did EXACTLY this, only with a convertible bed that went from crib to toddler bed. BEST INVENTION EVER might I add... it's got half-height little wall things to keep him from falling out of bed at night. Doesn't keep the sheets in and on him, but that's an easy fix. Of course, we decided on the transition when my son (at about 2) figured out how to climb OUT of the crib, and just happened to conveniently be in the market for a house, so waited until we were moved. I think Jack will be just fine, and might even love his very own big boy bed even more than he loves his crib!
Those boys are so tricky!
Well, we have a three year old and about six months ago during the big boy bed transition we tried the baby gate across the door and he pushed it down. Then we tried just putting him back in bed like the Super Nanny does and it worked! Until one night at 2 am we woke up to our bedroom door creaking back and forth, back and forth, we got up and he was awake! All of the lights were on downstairs, toys were everywhere, pillows off the couch, a chair was pushed up to the counter. My very expensive photography camera was perch on the top stair waiting to take a tumble ALL THE WAY DOWN. Luckily we already had safety locks on all of the doors leading to the outside or he may have gone for a little walk to the park. He now gets locked in his room, every. single. night. Now, he stays in his bed, even if we don't lock the door, but when I check on him at night I lock it, just in case he goes for another late night adventure. On a side note, we have also had to remove every piece of furniture (aside from the bed of course) out of his room and lock the closet doors. That was after we found him climbing the dresser (after dumping every article of clothing out of it first) and ripping the shelf off his wall so he could get the cute vintage toy truck off it.
We solved this problem by
We solved this problem by putting a baby gate across his door. He occasionally gets out of bed and stands at the gate, calling "Somebubby help me?", but usually he just goes to sleep. For us it wasn't much different than sleep training to get him to sleep on his own in the first place.
Toddler Bed HELP
Can somebody please tell me how to keep my 26 month old and my 16 month old from taking their clothes and diaper off in the middle of the night! And Toddler bed? HA! My older son just gets out of bed, climbs into his little brothers crib (which he can't climb back out of like he can his) and they both end up awake all night long. Needless to say we just have to wait on the bed transition. Back to my main point, HELP! My morning routine...wake up, fill cups, get diapers, wipes, trashbag, and laundry hamper and slowly open the door to the boys room. I take both naked boys who are covered in poo and soaked in urine out of their beds, clean them enough so that they can go in the bath tub, bathe them, and finally they can play. I clean beds and floors and wash sheets and blankets for the first half of every day. This can't be healthy for them to soil themselves every night. I try the toilet but they only want to play in it and flush it over and over. I certainly can't allow my two toddlers in the bathroom while I am asleep. So what is a mom to do?
I Continue to Boycott Your Subject Line
Since you are doing it when moving, maybe you can set up the new room with nothing in it but the bed until he gets the idea that bedtime is for sleep. If he had nothing other than an empty room to play with, he might stay in bed more.
I thought kids stayed in their cribs until they started climbing out. That is what I was planning on doing anyway.
To those who lock their kids
To those who lock their kids in their rooms. Get a dog and stop procreating.
That's HORRIBLE.
Toddler Bed
My son has always been a great sleeper in his crib, when he wakes in the morning he would just play until I came in to get him out of the crib. But when he was 2 1/2 I found out our crib was recalled so I figured it must be time for the toddler bed. I was nervous about him getting out of the bed or worse falling out of the bed. My son did not skip a beat, first night in the toddler bed he climbed right into the bed, slept through the night and in the morning he got up and just started playing with the toys in his room. I do keep the his door shut, he has not figured out how to work door knobs yet, but I still use a baby monitor so when he does wake up I know it and can go get him. Most mornings I will let him play for a little while before going to get him, he seems to enjoy the time to himself.
big boy bed
i agree ,locking a child in a room is cruel,and screw supernanny! all 4 the show,it is cruel to listen to your child scream and beg 4 anything.i have a 21 yo down to a 2 yo,i never ever would or had to do it.a nut job expert told me to lock my 6 yo in her room and hol;d the door shut,it was so horrible ,i like to beat the hell out of the nut case. i now allow my little ones to lay in my room with their own space ,i lock the door but i am in the room,my 6yo like to fly down the steps.
maybe it is about power,maybe something else is going on,i now am working on my kids learning their br is not just for sleeping or punishment,they associate that with being punished! allowing them to read a book or listen to a song or two,and yes my 2 girls play w their dolls inn bed but will give them up when its time 4 lights out.and btw little kids dryout fast so screaming and crying isnt good for them,find a compromise that works,being alone in my br is overrated anyway!why do moms listen to other moms? its okay to look for tips and suggestions but to actually go for it is beyond me .all kids r different there is no 1 size fits all in parenting,besides do u want a cold hearted soul or a happy stable child later on?
locking your kids in their room-horrified
What is wrong with you people locking your kids in their rooms. That is just cruel. My daughter trasitioned into a big girl bed at 2 and we never had a problem. One time she made it down the steps into the livingroom, she was scolded and put back into her room. My daughter was quite easy. I did make sure that we left the hall light on just in case she made her way down the steps again. She never did leave her room in the middle of the night after that. My son, who is now 1 year old is completely opposite of my daughter and I am sure that I will have a harder time getting him to stay in his room when it is time to transition him but I will never resort to locking him into his room. There are other ways to make a child stay in his room for bed.
This is not just a cruelity issue but also a safety issue, god forbid, what would happen if your family has a house fire like mine did.
My daughter is almost 19
My daughter is almost 19 months and already in a toddler bed. Doors should be closed while they're sleeping! Especially if you're sleeping too because it is a fire safety issue. Rori can't open doors yet so we set some toys out for when she wakes up, this lets us sleep in an extra thirty minutes on the weekends! When she throws a tantrum I put her in her room with the door shut. She gets to come out when she's done throwing the tantrum. If you're son can figure out doors invest in a swing gate. There shouldn't be anything in his room that he can't have. I'm sorry but I fail to see the problem.
locking--I don't think it's cruel if you're worried about safety
If you're seriously worried that your kids might wander out of bed in the middle of the night while you're asleep and injure themselves, then I don't see how locking the door could be cruel, though the baby gate that one person suggested might be a seemingly less drastic alternative.
With my kids, it's never gotten bad enough that we had to go that route. They are allowed to go to sleep with a single lamp on while looking at books in their beds. They occasionally get out of bed and play, but discipline and/or the threat thereof generally takes care of it.
Not sure why it is cruel to
Not sure why it is cruel to keep the door shut when ur kids sleep. I have a monitor for my sons room. He is 20 months and I am way to affraid that he will get into something n hurt himself or die on me to leave the door open but when he gets up he normally plays for awhile n I will go in and get him n we go make breakfast. When he is older I will not lock him in there but till he is much older his door stays shut.