Kids and Co-Sleeping: Comforting Now or Sabotaging Their Future

My family co-sleeps. My wife, Leigh, my daughter, Billie, and I will usually be sleeping with each other one way or another. Whether we are all in Mommy's and Daddy's king size bed, or maybe just one of the parents is sleeping in Billie's bed while the other gets the King size all to herself. Families all around the world either welcome co-sleeping or tolerate. There are some good things as well as bad things in regard to co-sleeping, and you should know what they are!

The Pros

Bonding: You want your kids to listen to you. You want your kids to respect you, and you want your kids to trust you. By letting your children sleep in the bed with you they are strengthening their emotional attachment to you.
Making your job easier: Very early in your child's life there is so much nighttime care required. Whether it is breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, late-night diaper changes, or any one of the countless items I couldn't think to list, having your kid in the bed with you is going to make it so much easier for you to be a loving and attentive parent.
Sleeping Better: Often children with sleep better if they are in the bed with their parents. You provide comfort and a sense of safety to them. Unlike the creature that is peaking out at them from inside of their closet.

Cons

Danger: Those know it alls at the American Acadamy of Pediatrics say that co-sleeping can increase the risk of SIDs. Of course, the mattress salesman told me the same thing about using the $150 regular mattress as compared to the $1575 anti-sids mattress. I'll give you one guess as to which mattress we got for our daughter. She's 3 1/2 now, so I guess the "bargain" mattress wasn't so bad after all.
Starfish Pose: Co-sleeping may genuinely help the children sleep better through the night, but it can really disrupt the parents sleep pattern. Our daughter likes to lay in a starfish pattern while slowly rotating counterclockwise throughout the night. I have fallen asleep at my computer 7 times while trying to write this article. Co-sleeping? More like No sleeping!
Coddling: Spoiled brats, codependent child, and mama's boys are some of the words that could be used to describe the child that grows up co-sleeping with their parents. You want your children to love and respect you, but you don't want them to be completely dependent on you.

To Co-sleep or Not to Co-sleep?

Ultimately, the decision to let your kids sleep in the bed with you is truly yours alone. Well, yours and your partner's. Unless you are a single parent, and then it really is yours to make alone. All alone. I like sleeping with my daughter. She's a cuddler, and she doesn't complain about my snoring. Sometimes she places her hand on my cheek and softly says "Daddy" as if I'm the most important person in her world. Then of course, there are times like last night when she woke me up at 3 a. m. to rub her feet. Is she spoiled? Obviously. Does she love and respect her parents? Yes. Does she sleep through the night? Yes, as long as her feet aren't hurting, and then there's a really simple 30-minute solution.