Parents ‘lie’ about children’s sleep habit

Exhausted mothers and fathers are lying about their child’s sleeping habits due to pressure to be seen as a perfect parent, a survey claims.

It reveals that less than half of parents (45.8 per cent) say that their child never wakes in the night, with around one in 10(11.1 per cent) getting up three or more times.

Parenting website Netmums, which questioned almost 11,000 parents, said the findings showed that the pressure to be a perfect parent is so great, that around a third of parents admit lying about their youngster’s sleep habits.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This includes lying about the time their child goes to bed or wakes up, when their youngster first slept through the night and how well their son or daughter sleeps.

A further three fifths (61.7 per cent) have lied about how well they are coping with sleep deprivation, the survey says.

It reveals that a third of parents (36 per cent) say their baby did not sleep through the night by the time they were a year old, with only one in four (25.7 per cent) saying their baby slept through by the time they were three months old.

The poll found that the most popular ways for families to get children to sleep was to use set routines (38 per cent).

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

One in five parents have resorted to driving a youngster around in a car to get them to nod off, Netmums claimed.

The parenting website also revealed the dangers of sleep deprivation for new parents.

Mothers and fathers reported incidents such as starting kitchen fires by putting sterilising equipment on the hob because they were over tired, while others said they had collapsed and been hospitalised.

But the poll found that some parents are seeking help with sleeping problems. One in five (21.2 per cent) have gone to a health visitor, a similar proportion (20.2 per cent) have asked advice from family and friends

The online poll questioned 10,766 UK parents to mark the start of National Child Sleep Week.

Related topics: