Sleeping with a washing machine

We've mentioned before that sometimes it is unfortunately unavoidable that you have to share a bed with your children. I know that some people do this out of personal preference, but we are not included among that number.

Wherever possible we try to arrange it so that we can have a double/queen bed for the adults and the children have either a double to share or a single bed each. When the kids have to share a bed, we have topped and tailed them so that they are each using a different part of the bed (and get in each other's way less). This seems to work better than having them both with their heads up one end, because one of our children is a washing machine when it comes to sleeping...

Once, in Portugal it happened that we could only get two separate non-connecting rooms, with a double/queen size bed in each. That meant that we had to have a parent and a child sharing each bed (we didn't feel safe leaving our kids in a room without us). One of us therefore had to draw a short straw and share with The Washing Machine.

It wasn't me...

[...and here John butts in for a minute: I had just driven for six hours and was extremely tired so I didn't need what was coming next...]

John was woken in the middle of the night by Bendy who was sitting up, trying to pull the pillow out from under his head. She said she wanted her pillow back. John pointed out to her that it was his pillow, and hers was where she had left it. She doesn't always bother with sleeping parallel to the sides of the bed, with her head helpfully resting on the pillow. On this occasion as for many others, she was actually sleeping across the bed, and had therefore lost track of her pillow. John had been pushed, kicked and pummelled for much of the night by her feet, as she lay across the bed. Needless to say, he didn't get a really satisfying night's sleep.

So, sure, if your children are a little more passive than ours are in bed, by all means co-sleep with them if you are that way inclined. However don't be surprised if we choose not to.