Posted by Marybeth on February 22, 2001 at 08:37:57:
In Reply to: 3 1/2 yr old not sleeping alone posted by mom2girls on January 30, 2001 at 21:56:25:
I have sooooo been there. My daughter went through that after her father and I divorced. She was three at the time. After one and a half years of neither of us getting good sleep, we finally had to come up with a solution. When she was five, she asked me for a hamster. That was the best thing that could happen. I told her that she wasn't old enough to have one, she insisted she was. I told her she had to show me she was by sleeping in her own bed. It worked like a charm. To keep her hamster she had to continue to sleep in her own room or the little guy would go back to the pet store. She is almost eight now and she still asks to sleep with us (her stepdad and me)but we only allow it on nights when nobody has to work or go to school in the morning. And it does not happen very often. She likes the idea of laying down with us to watch a movie much better than staying the whole night. Good luck, it isn't easy and I spent a lot of time laying awake for hours praying she would be able to fall asleep and not be scarred for life by me making her sleep alone. (She is fine and well adjusted)The hamster has been gone for a long time. Try a reward that works for your little one.