Thursday, April 24, 2008

Confessions of a guy who was a scardy-cat kid

You know how you want your kids not to be wimps...? I have to admit that I really want Goobs to sleep in his own bed. He creeps in the middle of the night and somehow we wake up with a little boy in our bed in the morning. He sometimes sneaks into his little sister's room and sleeps on the floor. He's basically afraid at night. I lay down with him, talk to him every night and we say prayers together. It seems calming for him, but he still ends up sleeping somewhere else other than his room.

Here's the confession that I have to make. I was the same way. I shared a bedroom with my little brother. Sometimes I would wake up and feel scared. I would slide my bed over next to my sleeping little brother for some comfort. So, I guess the next time I get irritated about my son's need to feel secure at night, I've got to remember my own feelings as a little boy.

You know...it's good when you have those little lightbulb moments. It reminds me to go back and think about how I felt when I was scared, upset, or out of sorts, which was a lot. Hopefully, I'll be able to identify with my kids more.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

my younger child has that same MO. he goes to sleep in his room . . . and i wake up hours later with a little boy sleeping in MY bed. (*i don't know how he knows when to come into my room though . . . i don't go to bed at the same time every night and yet he manages to come to bed AFTER i've fallen asleep!)

i try to remind myself that in a few years he's not going to want to sleep in my room and he'll be "too cool" to have anything to do with me . . . so i'll just treasure it for now.

Anonymous said...

My boys share a bed. A single bed. We have their two single beds pushed against each other but the ALWAYS end up together. Hey, I don't like sleeping alone. Why should a child, you know?

Mama Nabi said...

Kids with lots of imagination, especially sensitive kids, tend to fear things more, I think. LN's going through a phase where she's scare of "ghosters"... she used to like them but has now decided that they're scary... but then she sleeps with me already. :-)