Make the Bed

Want an easy way to connect to your kids?  Make the bed!

When my daughter was an infant, making my bed was a glorious game of snuggles and peek-a-boo.  I’d put her in the middle of the bed and smooth the bottom sheet around her all the while telling her what I was doing.  Next I’d pull up the top sheet—a chance to play “Where’s baby?!”  By the time we were done, Baby had been rolled here and there and tickled and kissed. 

For a toddler, the move from a crib to a toddler bed is a big deal.  So is making it.  With just a pillow and quilt, even a two year old can show her pride and ownership by fluffing the pillow and pulling up the quilt.  Watching your child figure out the placement of various dolls and stuffed animals is like a window into her mind.

At four, my daughter liked to be the big girl by helping Mommy.  Now she would help pull up the sheet while I stood on one side of the bed and she stood on the other.  With her little hands she would do her best to pull things tight.  Best of all was throwing up the pillows to get them nice and plump.  Did this sometime turn into pillow fights?  You bet!  The bed could wait. 

In our house getting to sleep in a regular twin bed was a lesson decision making.  I got a catalogue for a sheet store, and reading through it became the week’s bedtime story.  As we flipped the pages, I’d ask my daughter, how would it feel to sleep in these sheets? Eventually, she narrowed it down.  Her final two choices cracked me up:  One was dump trucks and cranes in primary colors; the other was pale strawberries with little blue flowers.  Not being willing to be defined by one set of sheets, she asked her aunt to buy her one for her birthday, and I bought her the other ones. 

And as a teenager, does she make her bed?  Well, no.  She has a loft bed, and it is a pain in the neck to make it, but I still love to climb up for long chats in a nest of pillows and blankets.