London - Some mothers relish the chance to reclaim their beds after sleeping with their babies.
Others like to hold on for a couple of years.But few would still want to be snuggling up to a child who was on the verge of starting senior school.
Not so former Dragons’ Den star Hilary Devey. She has admitted she shared a bed with her son until he was 10 and that at the age of 29 he can still jump under the covers.
Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women, Devey, 58, defended her decision to sleep with her only son, Mevlit, for so long, claiming her “mother’s instinct” means she knows what is best for him.
Her comments sparked debate on the programme, with none of the other panellists co-sleeping with their children beyond their first few months and years.
But experts said that Devey’s decision is not that unusual, as until recent decades poorer families often shared beds out of necessity because there was only so much space in their homes.
They also pointed out that around the world children sharing beds for longer is seen as more normal than it is in the UK.
Sue Palmer, parenting expert and author of Toxic Childhood, said: ‘In biological evolutionary terms, co-sleeping is a very normal thing to do and it’s very widespread in a lot of the world.”
Devey said: “I slept with my son because the advice then was to sleep with them. He’s 29 now and the advice then was to sleep with them because I think a mother’s instinct means you know when your child is ill.
“He slept in my bed, in fact I couldn’t get him out. He was sleeping in my bed until he was probably 10.”
She said that even now, he can sometimes revert to these old habits and said: “On a Sunday morning, which I love, reading the Sunday papers in bed, if he’s at home he will come and plop at the side of me and he’ll pick the paper up.”
Devey, worth an estimated £50-million (R1-billion), has been divorced three times.
She has previously spoken about her son’s seven-year heroin addiction that began in his teenage years.
The discussion on Loose Women was sparked by the reports of the mother in New Zealand who is facing jail after her 10-week old baby died as a result of sleeping with her in her bed.
Daily Mail