There are numerous benefits to co-sleeping. The snuggly time can help you bond with your babies, and co-sleeping has even been said to help children breathe more regularly and reduce stress. For breastfeeding moms, this alleviates the need to walk down the hall to get to the baby for late-night feedings. And because the house typically quiets down at an earlier time to accommodate baby, parents might get more rest out of snuggling with their little ones.
But when we think of co-sleeping, most of us imagine that this stage of parenthood ends with infancy or at the very latest, some time during toddlerhood. But for one family, that is not the case at all.
Single mom Bernie Watkins believes co-sleeping has strengthened the bond she shares with her children.
Watkins, 49, admitted that she still shares a bed with 10-year-old daughter Frankie and 12-year-old son Caden. The admission has caused quite a bit of discussion. But Watkins is not ashamed of this. Instead, she believes co-sleeping with her kids has contributed to the close bond they share.
Watkins says her children are still independent.
“We’re a very close cuddly family so it’s perfect for us — and getting into bed at night is a lovely part of our days,” Watkins told Southwest News Service, according to the New York Post.
If you’re wondering if there’s a little co-dependency going on, Watkins assured everyone that is not the case.
“People told me they [the kids] would grow up to be clingy and dependent if we kept sharing but they’re the total opposite,” she said.
Watkins started co-sleeping right after each kid was born.
Every night Watkins, who is a single mother, lights candle, plays relaxing music, and has conversations with her children before they drift off to sleep on their king-size and twin mattresses, which have been pushed together.
For Watkins, co-sleeping began when her children were infants. “For me it felt wrong to take a tiny baby and leave them in another room alone,” she shared, according to the news outlet. “I was always set on co-sleeping from birth.”
Watkins says she wishes people would not rush to automatic judgments.
Still, she recognizes how others might view it as strange. Though she now lives in Grenada, Spain, co-sleeping is not the norm in her native England.
“I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion … [but] I wish other people wouldn’t make comments or put barriers up around co-sleeping,” Watkins said, according to Southwest News Service. “People make an automatic judgment.”
She says it's the 'most normal thing in the world.'
When asked when she believes her children will want their own beds, Watkins said they’ll “never want to give up” sleeping in the same bed with their mom.
“I believe it’s important to have that contact. It’s really understated but it means a lot to us,” she said.
Watkins concluded that sleeping together is “the most normal thing in the world.”
