AIBU to still have DS in a cot..?

[Milkandmarmite]

I have one ds, 2.8 years who still sleeps in a cot bed with the sides up.

I haven't taken them down yet as he hasn't figured out how to climb out, so as far as I am concerned the need hasn't yet arisen.

However, I have had more than a few comments now from visitors and family members suggesting that he is FAR TOO OLD to be sleeping in a cot.

AIBU? Surely, it's better he isn't running about the place causing havoc at bed time any earlier than he needs to be?! I am of the mind - all in good time! On a side note, this is also my approach with potty training, he is no where near ready and has absolutely NO interest so I have decided not to push it quite yet. However the raised eyebrows are coming thick and fast for that too...

Sigh, is it me... AIBU?

My youngest was in a travel cot until he was 4.
We had 2 adults, 3 teenagers, and 3 little's in a 3 bedroom house and it was the only way we could fit until we did some major re-organisation.
Some most nights he would creep into bed with me, but he was technically in the cot. It was a big one, he wasn't squished or anything, at the foot of my bed, and he could of course climb in and out at will.
It was only after my pfb and his fiancee got their own house, and we re-organised the other rooms that he got his own bed.
We ended up with bunks and a single in one room, and DD had her bed built in to the box room.
I just can't see how it matters - as long as a child is warm and dry, and secure, and has their own place if they want it and not Mummy's bed that anything can be wrong...
With potty training, I found my boys weren't anywhere near ready as soon as DD was. With DD she was an August birthday, so started nursery school a couple of weeks after she turned 3, and was trained in 2 days because they wouldn't take her in pull ups. I just told her that if she weed herself, she wouldn't be allowed to go anymore, and asked the staff to gently remind her to go to the toilet every so often and she was away
My boys otoh took more actual "training" so to speak. In fact my pfb was past 4 when he got the hang of it, and all of the boys had many more accidents, and they went on longer than DD.
I don't think there's any point in starting too young though, as they just don't "get" what you want them to do, they know they need a wee but then out it comes - they have to learn the muscle control to hold it in and run to the potty or toilet, and that comes when they're a bit older.
Just my opinion

Hmm I'll take a week or 2 potty training at 2years old over a couple of days at 3.5 anyday! 1.5 years of spending on nappies, that for the vast majority end up in landfill wouldn't be my choice. If your at all anxious about it or can't cope with cleaning a bit of pee off the kitchen floor, then it is probably better to leave it for a while.

I didn't potty train.

My children did it themselves, close to age 3. Nappy came off one day and that was it. No potty, no cajoling, straight to the adult toilet.
Completely dry and claen day and night from that day forward.
Easy peasy.

There are physiological neurological process to develop before potty training can happen. Same with walking, or the reason babies feel everything with their mouths, rather than their fingers. The nerves are not fully developed.

“The splanchnic nerve is the nerve that allows us to feel a full bladder,” “This nerve doesn't get completely covered in myelin in most girls until 24 to 30 months and in most boys between 30 to 36 months of age. Until it is covered, we can't sense fullness — picture a wire with no insulation, it can't conduct signal,” “Asking kids to learn the process of feeling full, holding the urine, getting to the bathroom and releasing urine is not possible until this point. Up until then, it's the parent's best guess about other cues that mean 'I have to go!' from their child.”

You are lucky. DS started climbing out of the cot at 15mo and hurting himself so I had to take the side off (for which someone on the sleep board labelled me irresponsible and said I needed to impose boundaries ) . He is now much harder to settle. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Solasum my friend has just had to put her 13 month old in a bed for the same reason!

If your at all anxious about it or can't cope with cleaning a bit of pee off the kitchen floor, then it is probably better to leave it for a while.

If you have to keep cleaning pee they are not potty trained.

Mine have just turned 3 and are still in cots. It's great. Last night they slept 11 hours straight (from 9pm till 8am after napping in the car but that's another problem entirely). We plan to move them over this summer but only because they're getting physically too big for the cots!

My oldest vaulted out her cot at 13 months, ds was still in his at 3 as he told me it made him feel cosy!

My oldest vaulted out her cot at 13 months, ds was still in his at 3 as he told me it made him feel cosy!

Yanbu, but I am envious that your child doesn't know how to climb out.

Dd figured out at around 18 months, but then I am convinced she is part monkey

DD was walking at 9 months and vaulted her cot at 13 months in a grobag (she only slept in it a handful of times as she preferred co-sleeping). It was a vintage cot so couldn't remove the side. So we ordered her a full size single bed which arrived when she was about 14 months.

She could get out of the travel cot by 16 months so that went as well. Although when we visited relatives when she was 3.5 they set up a small travel cot for her, which ch seemed odd to me. I bedshared with her and DH Slept on the sofa.

DS was in a cot with sides up until 3.5 and in a sleeping bag until a couple of months after that. Potty trained at 4 ish. Dry at night from 4.5 ish. Had a dummy at night until 4.5. Learned to read on his own at 2. He still wouldn climb the sides of a cot at 5.7 as he is nervous of even small heights and falling. Children are all very different. Comparisons are redundant. Also, I most certainly did not baby DS. In fact I wished he hurried up a bit with everything (apart from the sodding reading), but he couldn't give monkey's about my schedule. He had, and still has, his own.