Super Nanny

So I am trying to process what I just saw on Super Nanny. I don’t usually watch it but was flipping through and heard her say how the boy needs to get out of his parents bed, intrigued I stayed and watched for a while. She had them do a sleep training session with him. They played in his room with some of his favorite toys for him to get used to the room and then that night they put him in his crib and they were supposed to actively ignore him. The mom sat in his room on the floor like 3 feet away from his crib facing away from him and was supposed to sit there and ignore him until he went to sleep. The mom sat there crying herself and the little boy started yelling he was dying. It took 33 minutes til he laid down and went to sleep. But then every time he woke up in the night she was supposed to go in and sit down and ignore him.
Super Nanny referred to it as a bad habit and a cycle that needs to be broken. Its so rude for us adults to think of it this way. Kids are expected to be in their own room and sleeping through the night before they are even a year old these days and why? So mom and dad get a good night sleep. So we should do whatever it takes to get that. I understand sleep is important and needed but so is your child. Important. And needed. He has wants, needs, feelings, fears, etc, etc, and they don’t just stop at night. Well what about the child?

While watching I got mad. And sad. But then I was thinking about it and I’m not sure what age he was but he was talking so he was at least two and by that point I would want to at least be close to her getting out of our bed. (I think) But I want to do that in a way that is smooth and gentle. So sleep is a soothing, comforting thing for her. I try and look at all situations from her perspective and how she feels and then go from there.

In processing all of this sleep stuff it makes me think about my sleep history. I remember being scared a lot of the time when I went to bed. I couldn’t sleep with my door shut because it was too scarey, I had to be under the covers even if I was hot because otherwise someone could get me, I feared getting out of bed that someone was there to get me. All kinds of silly fears like that. In 7th grade I went through a long streak of not being able to sleep and felt ashamed to tell anyone. I was too scared to sleep. I would go into my brothers room so I wasn’t alone or just lay awake, sweating, praying, scared until I fell asleep. I don’t know why I had all these fears. I watched too much junk on TV maybe? Or I wasn’t taught that sleep was a safe and good thing. I dont know why and will never know. But I do know I want sleep to be a good and easy thing for my girl now and later on in life.