My youngest child slept in our bed until he was 7

• It was comforting having our son sleep next to us during the pandemic.
• It became incredibly hard getting a good night's sleep with our son in the bed the older he got.
• I thought it was going to be hard to get him to sleep on his own, but it was actually quite easy.

I've always heard that the youngest kid in a family gets privileges that the older kids don't get. As the youngest of two children in my family growing up, that was definitely true as I barely had to do any of the chores my older brother had to do.

My son is the youngest in our family. I had him 11 years after my oldest was born and eight years after twin girls.

As the baby of the family and the only boy, he was definitely coddled more and perhaps shown a bit more attention. He has also had to share a room with my husband and me since the apartment we lived in for over a decade wasn't big enough for everyone to have their own room.

My three older children — all teenagers — share a bedroom, and then there's us: my husband, Kai, and myself.

We bought a king-size bed so we could co-sleep

When I was pregnant with him in 2016, we decided to buy a new, bigger bed and got a king-sized one. When he was born, he mostly slept in his crib and napped in bed next to me. Some nights, if he was fussy, I would just keep him in bed with me. Once he became a toddler, we turned his convertible crib into a toddler bed. He would then wake up several times a night, getting into bed with us, which became frustrating as it would wake us up.

Eventually, we got rid of the toddler bed, as he was no longer sleeping in it at all and would cry to sleep in the bed with us. It was stressful, so we just went along with it, and Kai slept between us for a long time.

I kept telling him that when he turned 6, he could fall asleep in the room by himself. We tried several nights of getting him ready in his pajamas and reading a book, and I would leave the room. He would cry, coming into the rest of the apartment looking for me, saying he couldn't go to sleep without me. I would give in, sitting in bed next to him until he fell asleep.

We got him his own bed on his 7th birthday

We made sure that the idea of him having his own bed was exciting. Leading up to his 7th birthday, we told him that he could finally sleep on his own when he turned 7, making it more of a right-of-passage, as opposed to something he had to do. He was thrilled.

While he was at school, my husband and I went to Ikea and got a brand-new twin-sized bed, some nice sheets, and a pillow for him. Once he got home, he was very excited about the prospect of sleeping in his new bed. He watched as my husband put it together, then helped with transferring his stuffed animals from our bed to his.

I sat him down that night before bed and spoke to him about the importance of owning his own bed. In a house full of people, including other kids, that bed was his and his alone. I told him that he deserved privacy also, because he was never alone. At night, he could lay there and talk to his stuffed animals, sing, or think out loud without me pleading for him to "Go to sleep!"

I then kissed him goodnight, but he still wanted me to sit with him for a while, so I did. That first night of having his own bed, he slept in it the entire night.

There are times when Kai still wakes up from nightmares and comes over to our bed. Recently, when he was sick, he climbed into bed right between us. I was so tired that I just cuddled him back to sleep. After a few hours or so, he woke up, seeking the comfort of his own bed.

The time we shared our bed with our son may be over but it will remain a sweet memory as he grows older and gains more independence as his own person.