02/06/2025
I've been talking to a lot of parents lately who are worried their baby/toddler/preschooler still needs support with transitioning to sleep.
A couple of days ago, our eldest asked me to lay with him while he went to sleep.
When this guy was younger, he would refused to lie in his bed to go to sleep, with or without parent support. For what felt like years, he would fall asleep next to us on the lounge and we would walk him to bed. Now, he takes himself to bed and shuts his door (which I'm assured is NORMAL 🥲).
When you're almost 11, your mum isn't exactly what you consider 'cool' either.
Trying to hide my excitement, I jumped in. It's been a busy few weeks in our house and this boy feels all the emotions DEEP.
As I lay snuggling him, we chatted about the day. We'd had soccer in the morning, where we argued on the side line about dad (his coach) not subbing him back on the field quick enough.
I apologised for getting cranky. He acknowledged he shouldn't have thrown his drink bottle in anger. Being angry is ok. Throwing your drink bottle (which hit a mate) is never ok!
The more we chatted, the more he opened up about his worries. Mostly about Dad having surgery this week to fix his ankle. How he worried his ankle might not ever be ok and what that might mean for our family.
The morning's argument suddenly all made sense.
I often wonder what our relationship would look like now if I didn't meet him where he was at back then on the lounge. If I didn't stumble upon all the research about attachment parenting, in my panic to find out 'why my child won't do what they're told?'. If I didn't look inward and work on myself.
I get parenting young kids is HARD and working on yourself while parenting young kids is REALLY hard. Sometimes I think I only made it out the other end because of the incredible support of my husband and our friends.
You CANNOT spoil your baby/toddler/preschooler/any human of any age by meeting them where they're at. Whether it be sleep or any other part of parenting.
One day, instead of closing the door to the world when their feelings are too big to handle alone, they'll call for you. You'll jump straight back to where it all began. Breathe them in. And wonder how on earth you are lucky enough to be Mumma to such an awesome kid 🩵
