Mom Talk

Out of the blue tonight, my 4-year-old daughter did not want me to leave her room at bedtime. She cried and clung to me. She said she’s scared of the dark and scared to be alone. She begged me to sleep with her. I told her I had to sleep downstairs with Daddy and she said she wanted both of us to sleep with her. I explained that that wasn’t possible. She cried harder and said that her friend Lily is lucky because her mommy and daddy sleep in her room (actually she sleeps in theirs in a toddler bed because they don’t have many bedrooms).

What makes this weird is that my daughter has never slept a night with us, nor us with her. On a rare select occasion, when Daddy was out of town, she slept with me one night but that is all. Even as a baby she slept in her own room. I’m at a loss as to what caused this outburst. I finally calmed her down by agreeing to leave the stair light on outside her door so her room wouldn’t be dark and singing her a lullaby. I hope this is a one time thing because it’s really hard to leave a crying little one alone in her bed. Maybe that’s what she was counting on.