How can I wean my 5 year old off co-sleeping?

[CroccyWoccy]

I have a 5yo boy who sleeps with me for part of the night every night.

He’ll go to sleep in his own bed (I have to sit with him) and he will ALWAYS wake up during the night and come into my bed. If he get up before him in the morning he will usually wake up earlier.

We’’re getting to stage where we would like to plan sleepovers with friends, Beavers camps etc in the next year or two so feel we need to get him comfortable sleeping on his own…but how?

No words of advice, just following because I'm I'm in the same position with my 4yo! I was thinking of trying a gradual retreat so sitting on the end of the bed, then a chair next to the bed, moving further away... but not been brave enough yet! We have a groclock but that seems to have fallen by the wayside too...

Also following as I'm in a similar position. My DC1 stopped it when she could ask an Alexa to play audiobooks in the night but dc2 is not fussed about them.

He’ll still want to do sleepovers etc.

My DC still comes in most nights aged 10.
11 year old stopped about 6 months ago.
I miss it.

11 year old

?? Eleven year old.
why won’t it let me do the numerals

Ha, well it’s reassuring we aren’t alone!

I feel like cracking him falling asleep on his own has to be the starting point. We did have a good period when he was 2-3 of him falling asleep on his own and sleeping through in his own bed, those definìtely went hand-in-hand. But for various pandemic related reasons our routine went to pieces and we’ve never recovered.

I know I will miss it to, but at the moment it feels like it’s not just that he wants to sleep with me but that he has to - he gets quite panicked if he wakes up and I’m not around.

.

This was me until we stopped earlier this year. We brought back the Groclock after giving it up at an earlier failed attempt, and had a sticker chart. DS got to choose what his reward was after he'd got 7 stickers for staying in his bed until the Groclock was yellow. It took a few nights of me going into him and sitting with him until he fell back to sleep, but the incentive of a toy at the end won over!

Once he'd achieved that, we then had another sticker chart, which now went for 14 days. The reward was a slightly higher value toy if he did it. We thought the money spent would be worth the sleep!!! This also worked.

We talked about a 3rd sticker chart, which would have kept going for a month, but didn't need it in the end and now he nearly always sleeps through. If he does wake, I no longer have to sit with him. I just give him a kiss, say night night and he goes back to sleep by himself!

However, I still have to sit in his room when he goes to bed, and am currently sitting on the floor of his room at the end of his bed while I write this! Haven't cracked this one yet 😆