Child sleeps on a mattress on the floor

[Ovenpizzasarerank]

Went for dinner and a playdate with my Ds new friend. Mum is very nice, child lovely. Ds called me upstairs to show me his friends lego building and his bed was a mattress on the floor, is this normal? Mum very bohemian, house very messy and not well looked after-I am not judging and these things don't bother me, my house needs painting and some new furniture, so I get it, but is a mattress as a bed ok?

And for all we know it isn’t.

Why are you so dismissive and argumentative when people have pointed out that it COULD be a concern? You don’t know any more than the rest of us.

My daughter has a mattress on the floor that I lift to air regularly.
It has a proper mattress topper and fitted sheet and a duvet/pillow/blankets that are season appropriate.
She's always been a very, very active sleeper and she's only 3. She often falls out of bed and with her mattress it is a small bomp and nothing too upsetting.
As she approaches four, I have noticed that her sleep is a little more settled, so I'm hoping she'll be ready for a proper bed soon as a storage bed would be really handy, but this has worked so well for her I don't feel any shame or bother about it.
She's a loved little girl with a lovely bedroom that works for her age and stage.
Although he's quite a bit older, maybe this is the same for him.

Mine have all had mattresses on the floor at various stages. The only time we've had mouldy mattresses was with cabin beds.
OH and I had our mattress on the floor for years, house renovating and our bedroom was always the lowest priority.

@Ovenpizzasarerank It's actually the absence of sheets that makes it unhygienic. Def not normal. Is the child well-kempt otherwise as in clean clothes, appearence etc? Well fed?

In Japan it's very normal.

Well a mattress on the floor is no more or less adequate than a mattress on a bed. What difference to his quality of sleep does having the mattress a foot off the floor make vs having it on the floor?

i think it's neglectful/shows a low priority of hygiene personally with the lack of sheets.
so no bottom sheet at all? throws as in just random blankets like a nest? need more info really
and if the house is cluttered and messy i doubt the mattress is being aired
was it unhygienic like food out, dirty sides etc?

my cousins grew up with alcoholic aunty. she was amazing, very caring, but the house was dirty, she hoarded animals and my cousins struggled with basic hygiene for years. not regular teeth brushing, sleeping in clothes from the day, not showering enough.. it's hard isnt it as lots of people even brought up right can grow up to deprioritise hygiene practises
anyway they always slept over our houses instead!

Might not be the norm but doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. It is the normal in other places. Japan for example.

I have a divan - prefer it to slats - and there is definitely no air flow between the mattress and the divan base. It is no different to being on the floor.

We did this too—my second child was on a mattress on their floor from about 2 to 2.5 or 3.

Im tslking about the lack of bedding.

Nothing disgusting about it at all. What a ridiculous over reaction.

Dear heavens, how ridiculous is this thread? You really only have to turn the clock back to the 70s (when most children born made adulthood by the way) but lots of us slept on mattresses on the floor. As a student, a mattress on the floor was the norm. I did always have sheets though.

You said “adequate bed”. A mattress on the floor is an adequate bed.

It’s the bedding that’s the issue, the mattress itself wouldn’t necessarily be a concern by itself.

On a home visit/assessment a social worker will want to see the child’s bedroom to make sure they have a suitable bed and adequate bedding. It is one of a child’s basic needs.

Yes, seems well fed (slightly chubby) i'd say older clothes, but nice

Rich bohemian or poor bohemian? Maybe she can’t afford a bed? I wouldn’t judge, there’s been times I haven’t owned certain furniture I needed - but I do think there should be a sheet on the mattress ideally.

Heaven forbid that one should ever take the bedding off to wash and change it. Imagine if social services dropped in!

Theres no airflow between a mattress and a solid divan base, same as the floor.

That must depend on the floor's constrction.

On a concrete floor with no damp membrane it might.

On suspended wooden floorboards it'll be as dry as a bone.

Of course it's not a ridiculous thread. It's full of opinions - and peoples experiences - that do not align with YOURS! That does not make it 'ridiculous!'

What a rude, dismissive thing to say - that the thread is 'ridiculous.' purely because many people think what is happening with this child is not normal or acceptable.

Basically saying that anyone who has a different opinion to YOU is 'wrong.'

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Bed poverty is a form of child poverty - this covers bed and bedding. It may be the child prefers just a mattress but in view of the other concerns (inadequate bedding, generally untidy), I would mention it to school and let them investigate. You could ask they don't mention to the parent that you have reported it to them.

Lots of people sleep on mattresses on the floor. Its certainly safer. Id only be concerned if the child had to sleep on the actual floor with nothing to lie on.
A lot of people are also not house pround and dont have these kinds of standards.
The important thing is that the child is loved and reasonably presentable.

For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, children slept on straw with all the bugs and ticks and infestations, and they survived to be your forebears. The human animal is pretty resilient.