Family Bed - Transitioning to Sleeping Apart by: Laura Ramirez
Your question on a family bed is a good one. Let me start by saying that in my home, we had a family bed. My eldest son slept with us until he was 2 1/2 and the youngest until he was 3.
Like your experience, we had difficulty getting enough sleep when our children grew older and bigger. I'd awake in the morning with a foot in my face or would get pushed off the bed in the middle of the night by a child who was sleeping perpendicular to my husband and I and hogging most of our queen-size bed.
Although I would do it all over again if I had another child and I think our family bed is one of the many reasons I am so bonded to my children (even though they are both teens now and going through the process of individuation), you eventually need to make the transition to having everyone sleep in their own beds.
What I did in my family was buy a toddler bed which I placed at the foot of my own. I purchased the toddler bed online and let my child help me decide which one to buy which gave him a choice and some power in the situation.
The toddler bed allowed my child to sleep in the same room, but not in the same bed. After my child became accustomed to this arrangement, I moved the bed further from my own and finally into his own room. It was a slow transition, but it worked.
