I have a really big house. Two bedrooms have 2 kids each. Two have single kids in them. There are play rooms etc. A basement....plenty of room for everyone to stretch out. I remember seeing a TV episode of a couple who never had any kids but then adopted 3 kids from Russia. They ended up disrupting the adoption because at bedtime they would have these almost brutal scenes fighting so hard to get the kids into bed. One scene was when the kids were hiding under the beds because they wanted to sleep there. THe parents were incensed and physically fighting with a screaming child to lay in a twin bed. From the time my kids have been home they oftentimes have some strange ideas on sleeping. On Friday nights or track out we let them have more freedom to pair up, sleep in playrooms etc. One time my girls came downstairs while I was cleaning the kitchen on a Friday night really excited. They were in their pajamas, pillows, blankets, toys in hand. They said "Mommy we have a great idea! We want to sleep in the kitchen;" I said "I give you a lot of freedom on the weekends but the kitchen is off limits." Some orphans have slept on the streets prior to being adopted. Mine had sometimes slept in haystacks near the animals when they felt like it. Some slept in small houses with one room where 25 people would sleep. Then at the orphanages they would be in these bunks 3 high with 40-60 kids in one room. As a westernized society we can pile our judgment onto them thinking "poor kids..I bet they would really like their own rooms with all of their own stuff. They have nothing!!" We forget that many of the kids LOVE to sleep in odd places..it makes them feel safe under the bed or snuggled up tnext o each other. Two of my kids don't like the fitted sheet so pull it off to sleep on the bare mattress. All of them can be found from time to time with blankets over their heads sleeping cocooned inside their little safe havens. I think we need to teach kids about boundaries, rules etc. But when we adopt we have to be real careful to pick the battles. That family that disrupted the adoption because of a rigid belief further damaged the orphans they adopted by making their fears come true in rejecting them....
So, what prompted this post was how I found 4 of my kids tonight. MADE ME LAUGH...here are the pictures.
All in one room..Matea and Ella both on the floor on a makeshift mattresss
Jared with all the bedding pulled off of the twin bed and his super hero sleeping bag only . I have found him sleeping with his feet on the floor and head in the seat of a cushy chair....
Room shot...looks awful but just how they like it...
Grace is in there somewhere...she kept the sheet on...I have found her in chairs before.
My attitude is that as long as they get enough sleep and aren't cranky during the day for school..they can sleep in the same room sometimes....Tonight was one of them.
4 comments:
Thank you for sharing such sweet pictures and heartfelt stories. Followed you here from Twitter. :)
Ha, too cute. Too bad those parents you mentioned couldn't just let them sleep where they felt safe.
Wow! I never thought about fighting with kids about where they sleep, as long as where they want to sleep is reasonable (no to the kitchen makes a lot of sense, as does no to the garage). Those parents who fought with their children would have fought with Leon too - he was very often found asleep on the floor over the a/c vent. I'm sure his parents had plenty of days wondering why they paid good money for a bed he hardly ever used.
My bio kids do the same thing! - I have one that likes to sleep under a mound of blankets - he doesn't like them laying flat on top of him or neatly tucked in on the sides - he prefers to sleep under a huge mound. Often I find them in each others beds or together under forts. It's all good - as long as, like you said, they get a good night's sleep!
Well done!
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