Tried to have one nice night with my toddler and now I’ve ruined my life

[Yebs]

I mean a bit dramatic but I decided to let him come into my bed and watch the Paw Patrol movie on Friday as a treat, he was adorable and got so excited and snuggled up and slept all night in my arms. One of those moments you’ll look back on fondly.

Except now the fucker has slept in my bed for one night he thinks it’s his new bed, will he sleep in his bed? No. Did bed time just take 3 hours cause he’s kicking off to come in my bed? Yes. Is he asleep now? No I passed the baton to his dad who is texting me from his bedroom asking if he can just come in our bed to save the battle.

Don’t do a nice thing with a toddler if it’s a ‘once off’. Lesson learnt.

Never, ever give in. You have to win.

I new exactly what you were going to say after the first sentence...😂yes your life is now ruined

Toddlers are like puppies - you’ll have to train him out of it… or not - my DD was still in my bed at 6

For mine it's the TV.

At the moment, they think it's just a black box that sits in the corner. Once they know what it does, it'll be constant whinge and whine to watch TV. So I just never turn it on!
Sometimes I think, it would be nice to watch 20 mins of TV with them, but I can't face the battles/negotiations it would create!

Personally I would buy a Paw Patrol teddy that HAS to sleep in his bed and nowhere else.

The good new is they do grow out of climbing into your bed, well dd did by 7 years old

We have also made the mistake with the TV of showing YouTube Kids. Now DS wants specific videos. He can’t describe the videos in depth, so will mutter something like the one with the apple and then go nuts when it’s the wrong apple video from the 12.6 million that are on there. Same with Netflix and Iplayer, he wants specific episodes of each programme so we need to filter through each one until we find the one he wants. We should have stuck to live TV.

Ours was the bloody ride outside Sainsbury's.I so regretted that...

small children define

thin end of the wedge

making a rod for you back

give an inch and take a mile

Not sure who the original author of the following is, but I think they have nailed it.

A Toddler's Rules of Possession

1. If I like it, it’s mine
2. If I can take it from you it’s mine
3. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine
4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine
5. If it’s mine it must NEVER appear to be yours in any way
6. If I’m doing or building something all the pieces are mine
7. If it looks like mine it is mine
8. If I saw it first it is mine
9. If you are playing with something and automatically put it down it is mine

10. If it’s broken it’s yours…

I’m sorry but I think your bed now belongs to your toddler 😅

In a peak bit of wankery the other day I described myself as a 'bit attachmenty'. What I meant was I once let ds into our bed in the middle of the night then for six years after he would sneak into our bed at 1am every morning knowing full well at that time I couldn't be arsed to argue with him and I will literally do anything to get as much sleep as possible.

This is why I have watched shaun the sheep every single night for a whole year 😂see also : lollipop after every haircut, balloon after every dentist appointment, soda every time I go to the petrol station... He also thinks everytime we stay anywhere overnight there should be a pool because there was that one time...

This! He liked all these different albums on Amazon music for nighttime music but obviously couldn't say what they were so we color coded them 'blue music' etc. Should never have given him the choice!

Oops should have been a reply to Partyplan

Mine has to go to sleep in "the big bed"
This is all because of that one time he was poorly for over a week and it was easier to have him in bed with us than to try and settle him in his room for hours.
At least he's still small enough to be moved back to his room... and then he comes back to ours at 4am.

We're moving house soon, so hopefully the habit will be broken with the excitement of his new bedroom.

Mine walked in early hours and said yes mum, you called?
New tactic..

Wait until they’re teenagers! Do the groundwork now.

Stop giving in.
‘No , only when Mummy/Daddy says.’ Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Sorry OP but I laughed for too long at that! I should add that currently dd (3.5) is curled up in my bed because of a similar 'one off treat' that happened when she was about 18months old. Now she sleeps
In our bed once a week, an arrangement which has been negotiated hard to reach 😂

I feel you OP I once did something similar with my now 13 yr old DD, biggest mistake I ever made as she didn’t sleep on her own again for 5 years 😬 nightly battles after that, screaming and crying relentlessly.

Thread title did make me laugh.

Let your baby sleep in your bed! Why does it have to be just one nice night when it could be many?

Your child is now in your bed for the foreseeable. You could endure the endless tantrums as you tell the child it's your bed not theirs, while everyone says 'I told you so'. Or, you could style it out and pretend you always intended to become a super-turbo-attachment parent who just adores baby cuddles at 4am

Some of us actually do choose it...for reasons that have don't necessarily to do with loving it...

Why does it have to be just one nice night when it could be many?

This makes no sense at all. It was nice because it was a one off.

Lots of things are enjoyable because you don't do them often. You wouldn't go out for dinner with friends and enjoy it so do it every single night for five more years. And if you didn't want to do it one night they would ring you up and say

'but why? Why don't you want to? Why? I want to so why don't you want to?' Etc.

Hope he slept alright.

Your post made me laugh - you have a great way with words