Mr. Bed Hog

My son has issues about sleeping alone. In fact, every night before bedtime arrives, he asks me, "Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?" Sometimes, I'll tell him, "yeah, sure" and then slip out when the coast is clear, but most times I'll explain, "Come on, you're a big boy now. You should sleep in your own bed by yourself." Nice try. As much as I try to coax him to stay put, he always has a reason why he can't last the night by himself. There's a monster under the bed, there's something in his closet, the thunder frightens him or he just likes having me there to ward off bad dreams. But here's my major dilemma - when my son invites me to keep him company because he's scared the tickle monster is going to get him, he then proceeds to take up 3/4 of the bed so that the corner of the mattress I'm left with is about the size of a postage stamp. Last night, I tried sleeping in his room and when I thought he had finally dozed off, I gave him the slip. But he was on to me. "Mommy, I want you to sleep with me!" And so, rather than head back to an uncomfortable twin bed, my husband scooped him up and brought him into our room. You would think a Queen sized bed would have been big enough for the three of us. Not the case when your child is Mr. Bed Hog. He proceeded to sprawl out in the middle of the bed and when he finally started to power sleep, shifted his position so that he was laying horizontally between myself and my husband. Exhausted, my hubby went into my son's room to get some rest, and once again, I was reduced to the postage stamp sized section of our bed and was stunned every few hours when he threw a violent punch and it landed in my back or in my eye. All I can say is that once our Mr. Bed Hog grows up and gets married, he and the missus had better invest in a king sized bed!