Look Honey, the duvet matches the baby's eyes!!

I was just feeding Sofia upstairs in the guest room where she spends her first few hours of night sleeping until I come and bring her to bed with us, and I was musing about something I had read on a BabyCenter message board today. I had an email from the "Center" this morning and the caption read, "How to keep your kids in their beds"Immediately my curiousity was piqued. Not because I'm trying to coerce my children into their own rooms, but because I wanted to see what the "sleep experts" were telling everyone this time. Basically I got linked into an assortment of recent, related postings on the family bed; those for it, those against it, those who didn't even know they had one. Anyway, I ended up reading some of the comments and got my dander up when I saw that one mother had responded to another saying that family beds were "for mommies and daddies", implying of course that they are not practiced with the best interests of the child in mind. She went on to say that she loves her kids as much as any other parent, but when a child is walking and drinking from a cup it's time for them to go into a "big girl/big boy" bed. I'm not certain what the correlation is between a child being mobile and being ready to sleep alone, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the more you look or act like an adult (however vaguely) the more you should be expected to behave like one. Anyway, when she mentioned something about getting a child's room decked out for them, I couldn't help thinking that the crib and baby bedding manufacturer's must fear the concept of the family bed. Think of the millions they would lose in this country if all expectant parents were to register for a king size bed instead of the matching cherry sleigh crib and changing table set at "Babeez Etc." No little cute crib sheets with bunnies or mobiles that play Brahms (for only 10 minutes and then it needs new batteries) and certainly no more of those slider/rockers with buttery chenille slipcovers that retail for about $1100. No wonder everyone tells you how expensive it is to have a baby! Nope, all we would need would be a bedrail to keep baby from falling out and maybe a nightlight so we could see baby a little bit in the dark.

With all that said, who's going to take advantage of us family bed types?? I'm a sucker for a shabby chic bedroom as much as the next gal, but how do I pull it off when I've got a twin bed attached to my queen that has sailboats all over its bedspread?? How can I coordinate the assorted dog and puppy stuffed animals with the various bears and monkeys?My God, none of them match at all! Oh, I could get some of those trendy wall storage cubes and house all the different sippy cups that have collected in the room over the week. The possibilities are endless and my husband's pockets are deep, so what are they waiting for???