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Home › Articles › Issues for Mom › The Family Bed

The Family Bed

Is it for You?

By Shel Franco

Pages:  1  2  3  

Lloyd George, veteran father of the family bed living in Clarksville, Tenn., knows this first hand. "My wife is much less grouchy," he says. "She doesn't lose sleep getting up at night, [and] I sleep much easier without the comings and goings."

McKenna also points to a growing amount of research that shows children who are welcomed into the parental bed grow to be independent, self-confident and socially competent members of society.

Jessica Jones of Scottsdale, Ariz. couldn't agree more. Her two adult children spent most of their younger years in the family bed. The result has been independent and well-adjusted professionals, including a son who is "not at all the woos [disapproving family members] predicted [he would be]," she says.

The Bad Side
Veteran parents admit that the biggest problem with the family bed is how to stop. *Guy Marshall of Nova Scotia, Canada spent 10 years in a family bed. "Once the child gets the pattern established, it's extremely hard to break them of it," he says. "[My wife and I] have had limited success at different times, but [our 9-year-old daughter] always falls back into the same pattern."

While Marshall describes himself as having been "semi-tolerant" with the family bed in the beginning, he admits it is wearing thin.

Even supporters of the family bed admit it has its downside. "If the baby is fussy, no one sleeps," George says. "She takes up 3 acres of a 4-acre bed. If she kicks, she kicks me, too."

Then there's the question of intimacy or the lack thereof. Marshall cites no privacy or time alone with his wife as a critical disadvantage to the family bed.


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