Is it Okay to Co-sleep with your Child?

Let me begin by saying that I'm completely against co-sleeping with a small child.  There's just too great of a chance of rolling over your child during the night and smothering him/her.  There's plenty of research out there on this that you can search for yourself.  As my daughters grew, I wanted to send a message that my bed is my bed.  I didn't want to send a message to my daughters that it was okay for them to frequently sleep in bed with Mommy or Daddy.  However, I don't think it's necessary to stick to this rule 100% of the time.  As long as your kids understand that they have their own bed, it's okay to let them sleep in bed with you on rare occasions.

So what are considered rare occasions?  For starters, thunderstorms.  I know that when it's stormy outside at night that I'll end up on the couch as my two kids wake up and worm their way between Mommy and Daddy in bed.  I have no problems with this.  I realize that loud thunder can be scary and it's okay if they want to cuddle up in bed with us.  I say us, but usually I end up going to the couch because my kids flop around like a fish and end up kicking me quite frequently.  :-)

Another rare occasion is when one kid is out of the house for the night.  My 6 year old daughter recently attended an overnight event with my wife, so it was just me and my 3 year old.  She wasn't happy that her big sister was leaving for the night, so I let her cuddle up with me in bed.  Again, it's such a rare occasion when this happens that it's perfectly acceptable to break the "sleep in your own bed" rule.

As long as sleeping in bed with Mommy and/or Daddy is set aside for rare occasions only, there's no reason to be super hardcore about sleeping rules.  Have a little fun once in awhile.  Your kids will thank you.