What age did you stop staying in DC's room until they fell asleep?

[Cosypyjamaface]

As the title says, usually we stay with DD until she falls asleep. What age did you move to "night night" and just leave them to it?

[AncientRainbowABC]

Never unless poorly/teething, in which case we usually have a little drama queen on our hands. We do milk, books, a little quiet chat once I’ve popped her in the cot and then I say good night and that I’ll see her in the morning. I have the baby monitor on and see that it usually takes her 20 mins or so to put herself to sleep. She either shuffles around in the cot poking her limbs in and out of the bars or plays with a little soft toy. Once asleep I remove the toy and/or limbs from cot bars and switch off the night light. DD is 1.

[OverTheRainbow88]

Yea my boy will scream blue murder if I don’t lie there and that will then upset his brother so the whole process will be longer. Also it’s the first proper rest I get a day so it’s not too bad really!

[WitchitaMickey]

Mine's 5 and still doing it.

[Thirtyrock39]

Around 6 months I started tackling bedtimes with my first - later with my other two but by 1 they all self settled at bedtime - this was a sanity saver getting evenings back. However this was using controlled crying which I know some people really don't approve of.
Personally I think babies need help learning how to get to sleep and I don't think many will just 'grow out of it'.

[FightMilkTM]

Sat on the floor of my one year olds room now. If I don’t she would cry and cry and cry and THEN potentially cry herself to sleep. Something I’m not willing to let happen.
I think I’m going to be sat on this floor for months if not years ...

[user327253]

My younger two are 7 and 3 and we still do, but we've never really tried not to, they generally fall asleep within 20 minutes and I quite like that time to read or be on my phone. But my eldest just wouldn't sleep if I was in the same room so stopped when I stopped nursing them as a toddler.

[CarlottaValdez]

@CarlottaValdez ...leaving your child awake at bedtime doesnt mean they cry themselves to sleep

Not all children I’m sure but with mine it did.

[Lilybet1980]

Still doing it with 4 year old. Been through phases of just being able to leave the room, phases of being able to sit in chair in the room and currently 18 months into a phase of having to cuddle in bed...It’s about 15 minutes, I don’t really care. When it was the chair phase I used the time to clear work emails. During the cuddle phase I often have a nap!

[Quackersandcheese3]

Never stayed with either of mine til they fell asleep.

[CarlottaValdez]

Although as I said upthread it was a pretty short lived phase.

[Pikachubaby]

Never

It never worked, they settled better on their own anyway

Just move out when you’ve had enough

My cousin stayed with her son, holding his hand until he’d fall asleep, until he was 7 or 8

They were both happy with this set up (the husband not so as he spent all his evenings alone)

Do what suits you

[airo]

Still do at 21 months. Bath, book, boob, bed. I sing him the same 5 songs every night at bedtime.

[QuiteCleanBandit2020]

Never!
We had relatives who did though and frankly it looked nightmarish.
The main problem being that the parents really resented it and were really unpleasant to their children.
I totally get why but why start it in the first place?

[Lilybet1980]

@FightMilkTM get yourself a chair in there!

[AncientRainbowABC]

FightMilkTM awesome username!

[TheFormidableMrsC]

I've never done it. It would have been endless otherwise!

[cptartapp]

Never did it. Milk, blanket, door pulled to. If they whinged they whinged. Both sleeping though by four and five months.
Nightimes were the only child free time we got.

[OverTheRainbow88]

I started it in the first place as it was progress from boobing to sleep, then progressing from rocking to sleep and transferring and now we are here at the back rubbing stage 🤪

[Ihaveoflate]

9 months when I realised I was actually keeping her awake by my presence!

She does not cry herself to sleep.

[SantaMonicaPier]

Never did it. I established a pattern early of milk then light out

[Bluewavescrashing]

Never. Bath, clean nappy and/ or pjs, bottle, book, brush teeth, lay in cot/bed, night night, leave the room. From newborn til age 6.

[Reader1984]

About 18 months. If she's calm I'll leave her to it and only go back in if she gets really upset.

[Bluewavescrashing]

Mine used to chatter and sing a bit to themselves, occasionally grizzled for a few minutes if over tired but never actually cried when put down. I did cuddle them as babies of course. But always put them down after a feed.

[Cosypyjamaface]

I said to DP shall we just see what happens. He said "Night Night Daddy's off to bed". Maybe 15 mins of chatting to herself and she looks like shes drifting off to sleep!

Why have we not done this before!

[AncientRainbowABC]

Has to be down to the individual child but, in our case, we let 1yo DD have up to 5 books before bed and we read them together. There’s always one she loves no matter how tired, and then she chooses others to go with it. If she’s less tired she’ll choose more. If she’s missed a nap/is exhausted she’ll just often go for the one favourite book. We’ve sometimes wondered whether this bit of flexibility allows her to use up any excess energy/imagination on nights when she chooses more books. Maybe not, but it sometimes feels that way.