Crib

Why guilty? He's happy! Here's my sad story: We moved my little girl into a "big girl bed" when she was about 2 1/2 because she had been sleeping on a mattress on the floor and I thought it was time she moved up. She didn't care, it was all me. She had never once rolled off the mattress when it was on the floor, so I did not even think to put rails on the bed. The first night she fell out of bed and broke her collarbone.

Hold out on the "big boy bed" until you need leverage, for potty training, or some other big reward!

Susan is mom to Alexander, Isabel, David and stepmom to Eric. She does community outreach for arizonamoms. Have you checked the contest page for the latest giveaways?

My neice was about 3.5 before she got out of her crib...she would climb in and out of it and was perfectly happy. She eventually got booted when they decided to try for another baby (they got her out of the crib then so that there was enough separation so that she wouldn't feel like the baby took her bed. Her brother was born about 11mo later. And she was fine with him in the crib.)

We booted our son out of the crib at about 2.5. He wasn't sleeping well in it and hated getting in (although never tried to climb out). We got a pup tent and put the crib mattress in it on the floor. Now he thinks that everyone sleeps in a tent after they get out of their crib. He's almost 3 and I plan on keeping him in there until he expresses a desire for a different bed or he gets too tall for the crib mattress, I figure sometime between 4 and 5.

So if you want him out of the crib, put the mattress on the floor for a while as an intermediary step, but don't worry about it too much, eventually he won't fit anymore.

We didn't move my son until he was 2.5. That's when he started crawling out. I didn't want him to fall and hurt himself, so we got him a big boy bed with rails.
He did great. We bought him cool sheets and talked about it all week before the move. He was a little nervous that first week, but he loves it now.

Destry Jetton
Host, Arizona Midday
Weekdays 1:00pm on Channel 12

My daughter was the same way. We finally had to make a decision to take her out of the crib at age three. One of the big reasons was that she was potty trained during the day but we could not potty train her at night because she could not get up to go to the bathroom if she was in a crib. She did fine in her bed and now that she can get up to use the bathroom she does not need diapers or pull ups at night.

I agree that you'll have to make the move for potty training or else he won't make it to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Maybe you can combine the two things - getting rid of the crib and potty training - as his move to being a "big boy."

Karina Bland is raising her 9-year-old son in Tempe with a lot of love, humor and support from her friends and family. A longtime journalist covering child welfare and education issues for The Arizona Republic, she blogs about raising good kids.

Thsnks all. Good food for thought - especially about the potty training issue.

Susie is a discussion leader in the east valley for arizonamoms.com. She has two sons, ages 7 and 3.