Process to put a 4 year old child in a seperate room
firni posted on Wed, 11/04/2009 - 15:56
Till now we were living in a joint family so we had just one room for us and my son slept with us. Very recently we moved to our own separate apartment. Now I have a kids room for my son. I am trying to teach him to sleep on his own as he is more than 4 years old now.
But its turning out to be very difficult. Please suggest what process should I follow to teach my son to sleep on his own.
Its really a tough job to do. My younger son who is 5 years old, still ends up sleeping with me almost 3 days a week. I have worked very hard. Actually I have given a single room to both my sons, with different beds. But still my younger one will say he is scared and make other excuses to sleep with me.
I am looking forward to other moms ideas.
Definitely its a tough job as said but if you take it slowly for your kid things will get in place. Try putting your kid on a different mattress/bed in your room itself to start with. This will give him the feeling of closeness. Once he is comfortable sleeping on an independent bed then move him to a separate room. If you will put him in a separate room in the first go he will feel rejected.
I like eva idea of going thru a step-by-step process. Also, some mothers try leaving their child when they r sleep. Please don't try this. Always leave ur son when he is still awake. Also, have a night bulb in the room so that he isn't scared.
My son started sleeping alone when I made him feel the importance of owning a separate room. Though I did this slowly as specified by eva but when finally I was going to give him an independent room I made him feel the ownership and how he could keep things there as per his wish. I thing this helped.
You may want to give it a try.
involve him in the design of the room. make him feel that it is he who wanted to have that special room. let it have his favorite posters. and let them arrange some of the things in the room. i think these days some of the paint companies have custom design for kids room that you can select from.