Sleeping Arrangement
Not a stepmom officially yet but I recently moved in with my boyfriend that has an almost 3 yr old. He has him half the week. The bedtime routine has always been him falling asleep on the couch and then my boyfriend moving him into his bed to co-sleep. Obviously with me moving in we didn’t think that was a good idea so now he lets him stay sleeping in the living room. His son has his own room with a nice bed but absolutely refuses to sleep there. Every night he’s with us it’s the same battle. He try’s to enforce bedtime and put a movie on but it turns into hours of him jumping up and demanding snacks and drinks and my boyfriend “bargaining” with him. Which no surprise, never works. When he does finally fall asleep, my boyfriend usually will want to watch one of our shows together. I love that time with him but we are still tiptoeing around his son sleeping in the living room and hoping he won’t wake up. It’s not relaxing. I guess I want to run what I intend to say to him by you more seasoned parents out there. This current stretch with him has been exceptionally rough with tantrums and I know he will ask if I’m doing ok once his son goes back to BM. I plan to answer by saying: “I can handle the tantrums and day to day highs and lows of him being a threenager. The thing I’m struggling with is the lack of a healthy bedtime routine and arrangement. You are the father and get to make the final call on this but going forward if there is no enforced bedtime and if he continues to be allowed to sleep in the living room then I will excuse myself for the evening once you start trying to put him down. I will just retreat to our room to watch tv or read for the remainder of my evening so I can have some time to unwind in a kid free space.” Thoughts?