Mama is Confused

It's the fifth year that I have been struggling with where Ethan should be sleeping, with the last two years being at war to put him to sleep in his own bed.  Today, at the dentist, I realized he really could sleep in his own bed, except for my weakness.  Poor Ethan had an infection discovered by his dentist on a regular visit.  The x-ray showed that the best thing to do is extraction.  So Ethan was totally taken by surprise.  I could understand the pain and anger.  It appears from the dentist that he was more difficult than most, and he screamed at the expectation of pain, as if he was in pain.  That made it even more difficult to decipher whether he needed more "sleeping drugs" for his mouth.  At one point, he was so mad that he pulled my hand over and gestured that he wanted to bite me.  I was really upset.  After all was done, and the dentist stepped out, I explained to him that either we have more problems with all the surrounding teeth or pull just the bad one out once and for all.  Ethan seemed to have understood that, because mommy had sat with him on three baby root canal over the summer, and many fillings before that.  I am more sick of the dentist and the dental bill than him.  When we left, he even said thank you to the dentist on his own initiative.

This whole dental experience had led me to wonder whether I was just too soft for Ethan.  There are a lot of things he does not like, including getting dental work and sleeping in his own bed by himself.  The dentist got it done, and Ethan said thank you.  Perhaps gift incentives and the happy face chart need to be revived.  A game plan needs to be in place.  I would love to keep Ethan in my bed but he needs to be tougher.  Ethan needs to learn resilience - to bounce back emotionally on his own, after knowing and accepting that sleeping on his own is important because he will have to deal with all the craziness of life on his own without succumbing to fears and running to mommy and daddy whenever he encounters unpleasant experiences.  I hope I am on the right track in the way I think.  I don't want to pamper him, or Artimus.  The world is not so loving and forgiving.  It's my job to prepare them.  Wish me luck, once again.  I hope Ethan will thank me when he is older.