My son is eight years old.  Most of his life, his nights have been so up and down that trying to get him to sleep in his own bed has been something I have not even thought of because I just wanted to sleep.  Any sleep was good, but recently he has been sleeping through the night.  Never one to miss a chance, I knew this had to be it.  This was the time to get my son to sleep through the night in his own bed without me.
The first two nights went very well.  I sat on the floor, while he was in the bed looking at me while he went to sleep.  Of course, last night something in his little mind woke up and said, “Hey, do you realize that Mom wants you to sleep in your own bed”?  Therefore, little Ryan kept me up all night long, but I was having none of it.

     I was a Mom on a mission.  I had to do it.  It was now or never; therefore, all night last night Ryan got up and down and I was up and down.  Well, I was mostly up.  It does not matter though because I am now armed with information that I did not have before.

     I now know of a 32 year-old bi-polar man that actually cannot sleep through the night because he is afraid of the dark and of sleeping without his mother in the same room.  This was enough to put this mother on a mission.  The mission is to get my autistic eight year old to sleep each and every night in his bed by himself. 
  
     The problems I see in him not catching on to this are endless.  For instance, what if I was to die.  I know we do not like to think of our own mortality, however, it could happen.  If I were to die my son would have a horrible time sleeping without me.  I would rather train him now than have him be in a miserable situation later when I am not here.  And that is why I am a Mommy on a mission because I need to know that when I am gone from this earth that my son can sleep in a bed without me or anyone else and be ok.  After all, is that not what a parent’s job really is, but to teach our children how to be self-sufficient after we have left this earth?