My four year old daughter has been fighting us at night when it is bedtime. She refuses to sleep in her bed, she will sleep in her room on the floor with her sleeping bag but will not sleep in her bed. The excuses are always the same, she wants someone to sleep with her, their are monsters and sharks under her bed or that she would sleep better if she was in the guest room. She has always been a good sleeper at night. I'm not sure where we went wrong. Any suggestions on how to get around this problem at night???
If she will sleep in her sleeping bag in her room without a problem, there is nothing wrong with that. Let her! It's just a phase. One day she will move back to her bed. My oldest daughter slept on her bedroom floor in a sleeping bag for a few months. I didn't really understand why she wouldn't sleep in her bed, but it wasn't worth the battle as long as she was staying in her room.
Let me ask you a question...who cares if she sleeps in her bed or on the floor? Is she sleeping? Is she happy? My daughter got her new big girl room and bed in August. She was so excited. After the first night, she wouldn't sleep in her bed. We fought her. There were tears and yelling and screaming. Then we went..."duh! What do I care if she sleeps on the floor or bed? I just care that she sleeps!" So every night we would ask her if she was sleeping on the floor or in her bed. We gave her 2 options (both of which made us happy) and there was no commotion because SHE had control of her decision. Our only things was that she couldn't sleep right behind the door (for safety) - though sometimes she would fall asleep there because she was trying to talk to us under the door. After about 2 months I started moving her to her bed in the middle of the night when I would go check on her before I went to bed. So she always woke up in her bed. Then without really realizing it, she suddenly started going to bed in bed. So, my advice. Give up control. In the matter of days or weeks, she will probably decide her big squishy bed is more comfortable.
Good luck!
My 6yo daughter has slept on her floor for the past 6+ months. It bothers my husband more than me. I figure, at least she is sleeping in her room, why does it matter that she is on the floor?
If there are monsters creeping in her room, then she needs a can of monster spray. Everyone knows that those mean monsters don't like pretty things and nice smells. So, buy your daughter some monster spray (air freshner) and let HER spray it everywhere the monsters are. She will feel safe in her bed knowing the monsters will stay away from her room that smells so lovely.
Worked for my girls!
My son went through a stage where he slept on the couch for awhile...it bothered my friends but not me. I figured that as long as he was asleep, why bother moving him...besides, moving him only woke him up and he'd move right back to the couch anyway...if I left him be, he'd sleep straight through the night. Same with my daughter, she actually preferred to sleep on the floor (and still does at age 14!). The way I figure it is, they were prepared for their first sleep over, and neither of them complain about sleeping arrangements when we go camping...so it was a nice trade off for me. I got to sleep through the night and so did they and we didn't have any hassle about it at all. As long as she is sleeping, let her sleep on the floor...there's no harm in it at all and is way less hassle to boot.
Recently my 3 ½ your old daughter has started the same thing that she doesn’t want to go to bed and stay in her bed because it is scary. When I ask her why it is scary says she doesn’t like it so I am not sure why it is scary. She has a tendency to come into our room and bed in the middle of the night so I then put her toddler bed in our room. She still will make her way into our bed in the middle of the night. I was going through all I could think of to get her to sleep in only her bed and remembered that every morning when we comb her hair she has some snarls so I told her that if she stays in her bed for the whole night she will have less snarls. Well so far this week she has not been in our bed! Each morning she wakes up and tells me, “mom I have no snarls, I stayed in my bed”. When we comb her hair in the morning I try not to let her feel any of the snarls to keep her thinking this. I still don’t know why she wouldn’t stay in her bed before but now she has.
A thought to try with the monsters and sharks is to fill a spray bottle with water and put a label on it "monster be gone" or something like that and then spray her room at night and then she may feel better. It sounds goofy but it worked for my niece.
my 3 1/2 yr old does the same thing. I think it is a phase.
Hi E.
I went throu something similar with my daughter and when I stop fighting her and making it a big deal to sleep in her bed and just expected her to sleep on floor she went back to sleeping in her bed within the week. Good Luck. T.
What we do when one of our 3yr. olds wont go to sleep in their bed is my husband or I will lie down in their bed with them until they fall asleep, and then get up and go to our own bed. If one of us is lying down with the kids the other one will come in and get us in 20 mins. so we don't acidentaly fall asleep in there.
