Parents of Preschoolers  Discussion Forum

I have a 4 yrs old daughter. My problem is that she always wants me to sleep with her even now. If I put her to sleep and move away she gets up immediately and comes to our bed (we have put a separate bed for her in our room itself). She wakes up many times in the night crying, bcoz of this, I cannot sleep properly in the night(Iam a working mother) and also our sex life is affecting. She sometimes cries to sleep on top of me, or i have to rub her legs or back for her to sleep. The moment I stop she gets up crying. My husband has to sleep alone everyday, I am afraid if he will get used to this habit of sleeping alone. I tried talking to her many times that she is big enough to sleep alone and all her other friends sleep alone. But nothing worked. Somedays I shout at her at force her to sleep alone, after that I feel very sad when I hear her cry to sleep. To avoid that I sleep with her.I am also scared if she will get mentally affected if I forcefully make her sleep alone. Please help me. How do I handle this problem. What is the right age when a child should start sleeping alone? Regards, Worried Mum. A Parent replied. We went through a similar problem but our daughter was younger and we resolved it. You have to either put her in another room or at least in her own bed and be VERY firm about it. She will cry and cry but she needs to 'learn to fall and stay asleep by herself'. You will be helping her much more by going through the initial painful stage than continuing this cycle of sleeplessness. Do not feel guilty. I have been there.