Although my son is now a teenager, I vividly remember the first two and a half years of his life. Wait, I retract that statement. I should have said I remember the pain during that period because any shred of actual memory was erased by continuous sleep deprivation. Quite simply, the dude refused to sleep in his crib.
We let him cry for an hour
We Googled various sleep training techniques. We let him cry for two hours. We played soothing music, but as soon as we placed him on his mattress, it was like a tornado siren going off.
My sleep deprivation got so bad that it started to impede my work performance. When all hope was almost lost, my my mother-in-law chimed in and stated, “Why are you making this such a big deal?”
She reminded us that “sleeping in your own room” is a very American concept. Are kids forced to sleep in their own rooms in 3rd World Nations? No, because they don’t have their own room to sleep in! Billions of families around the world scrunch into tight sleeping quarters every night.
And so, my wife and I dragged his crib mattress over to our room and allowed him to sleep at the foot of our bed until he was comfortable enough to sleep in his own room.
And we all rested
This application worked, but I’m careful to note that the primary issue was our child’s sense of security. We didn’t invite him into our bedroom to be our security blanket or because we were too lazy to return him to his room after a crying fit.
Every parent’s job is to teach their children to not need them some day. I would suggest taking inventory of how well you are doing at preparing them for this end goal. If you’re regularly pushing them to order their own food in restaurants, clean their rooms, and take responsibility for homework assignments, your child will flourish.
But if you do everything for them, you’re destined for a child who will fail to launch.