Teach Children To Sleep Alone, What Should Parents Do?

Illustration of a Child Sleeping Alone (Tatiana Syrikova / Pexels)

JAKARTA - Independence is needed by children for their future provisions. One way to start practicing independence is by teaching children to dare to sleep alone. The majority of parents already understand the benefits of this. Unfortunately, many parents have not had the heart to ask their children to sleep alone for various reasons.

When they were babies, parents usually felt that it was not right to teach their children to sleep alone. However, then there will be a dilemma when parents cannot stop the child's habit of sleeping with them. For that, try applying a few tips so that children can sleep alone.

Since the child was a baby or toddler, try to make a special box as a bed. This box can be placed in the same room as the parent's bedroom at the beginning of the baby's age. However, once you feel that your little one can be monitored remotely, you can start placing the box in the room that will become his room.

Then, make a special area in their bedroom so that the child wants to sleep alone. Starting from the wardrobe, toy holder, to the study table you can put in it. To make the children feel more at home, arrange the room using a theme or atmosphere according to their tastes. For example, if the child likes Mickey Mouse, this character becomes the main character when dressing up the interior. Starting from the color to the ornaments contained in it.

Encourage children to feel proud of the items they have in the room. Not only pride is created, but start inviting the baby to help clean the room and furniture. This will form the child to be responsible for what is in the room.

For parents who have prepared a special room for children from the start, start to get your kids used to sleep alone, especially when entering school age. Every now and then you can still accompany him to sleep for a while in the little one's room. You can also invite him to sleep together in your room from time to time, for example on weekends. This is useful for strengthening the bond between parents and children.

So that children want to sleep alone can also be done by making them proud, of their attitude to learn independently. You do this by telling his attitude that he has slept alone, with a tone of praise in front of his friends and in the middle of family.