For a while now, the wife has wanted to get the Monster into a big boy bed.
I’m not really opposed to the idea in principle. The major issue is that he likes the futon he’s been sleeping on, and I’m more of a “hey, if it works, don’t break it” kind of person.
And we do have a bedroom set, the one that I used as a child, but it’s not really suitable for him. For the Monster, that’s certainly not the best set, since I did actually bang my head into the table that goes with the beds a couple of times – once that required a trip to the hospital – and he’s a little… active at night. The wife let me know before my business trip that she had a line on a bedroom set that she could get off Freecycle that might be more his speed, leaving my childhood one for R eventually… and I kind of let her know that I didn’t want to be involved in the matter.
As a lot of parents of kids on the Spectrum know, they don’t necessarily handle change well. He likes the futon. He likes crawling onto it and going to sleep in the sofa configuration, and even at times prefers being told that it’s “couch time”. And, because of his meltdowns at not getting his way at times, it’s easier to me to just let things be.
So Monday, my wife and her parents got the bedroom set and brought it over, while I was trying to sort out my car problems. (For those concerned – yes, I finally have a new car today. Yay.) Despite my asking not to be involved, I was drafted into helping to carry the pieces upstairs and assembling the bed… and then I backed off.
Surprisingly – to me, at least – the Monster’s adapted well so far to actually trying to sleep like a normal person in his big-boy bed. We’ve not had a fight, and he’s not made any noises yet about missing the futon. Course, it’s also only been two nights so far (three if you count that I just put him to bed), so…
We’ll see.