Over years of parenthood, we tried various night sleeping strategies recommended in parenting books, seminars, by neighbors, friends or guided by simple exhaustion. When my kids were little and would wake up at night we tried walking them back to their beds and sitting with them till they fell asleep. We also tried leaving a welcoming fold-out mattress in our bed for whomever the night would bring in. We tried barking at them to go back to sleep, or read in their beds. We tried letting them squeeze in our bed, which usually resulted in at least one of us going to sleep in their beds.
We learned that in our large king size bed, little kids tend to rotate around their middle like the hour hand of a clock, usually waking up perpendicular relative to where they started. Our firstborn tall kid now rolls 1-2 feet in either direction and also can spread his long limbs perpendicular to his body, hitting our heads or hips. On such nights, happy to cuddle in with these treasures but unable to fall back to sleep I imagine a perfect family bed. One that could potentially fit all of us: with our daughter rotating around her tush and our son free to roll and throw his hands or legs in any direction. What size should be such bed if we are adults of a pretty regular size, rotating kid is around 4 ft and rolling kid is 5 ft with his limbs approximately half of his height?
Image courtesy of the Furman family.
Answers accepted all day long on Friday July 8th and Saturday July 9th, on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be hidden until Sunday morning (EST) and everyone who solved it will get a puzzle point.
4 comments:
Are your kids really only 4 and 5 inches tall?! I think you mean ' not "
Thank you, Linda! We are not Lilliputian. I corrected the puzzle.
OK, I will assume 3 feet for each adult would be adequate space. Then, 5 ft child would need 5' for his sprawling limbs plus an additional 2 feet on either side for rolling, which would be 9' altogether. 4' child would only need 4' of space (this is all width, by the way) in which to rotate her 4' body. Since you don't mention either child moving up or down, I am assuming they remain stationary, lenthwise, so 7' should be plenty of space lengthwise. Therefore, your bed should be about 3+3+9+4= 19 ft in width, and 7 ft in length. Wow! That bed wouldn't fit in my bedroom!!
Good morning! Everyone is either traveling or the puzzle is too personal/too painful/too familiar or too easy to bear.
I agree with Donna - 3ft for each adult, 4ft for the rotating kid, 5ft for spread limbs, 2ft on each side for rolling. 19 ft total. I would also add extra 3ft for the rolling son as a space to start with.
This is a bit more than 3 king size beds attached together! Sounds great for my good night sleep, but it wouldn't feet in my bedroom either.
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