The Dollhouse Diatribe: "Sleep Training" Gone Wrong

Disclaimer: it may be best if this information never reaches my eldest sister but it's the internet. Anything is possible.

So when I was 5 years old my mom bought me a Playmobil Victorian Dollhouse. It was apparently the coolest of the Playmobil collection and could come with up to 3 floors plus attic. Of course, I had the 4 story Victorian Dollhouse with all of the accessories. Both of my half sisters came home from college and were conned into helping put this thing together.

Playmobil was a kind of more girly version of Legos, in my opinion. As an 80's kid I remember Legos being very much marketed towards boys. My little boy cousins had everything Lego and I lived in a world of Playmobil. I recall having the dollhouse, the circus (which may or may not be in possession of my youngest cousin still) and the zoo.

So the Victorian Dollhouse (seriously, google it) had so many pieces and was all assembly required. We are talking curtains, wallpaper, window inserts that open and shut, fencing, porch additions, and the ones my sisters still mention, flowers in window boxes, on every window on three full floors. All of this they did on Christmas Eve decades ago.

When my parents split when I was 16, my dad packed up the dollhouse, intact. When it got shipped to me, it wasn't in the very best shape with some broken pieces but all easily glue-able and still fully functional. I took it apart and packed it properly in all kinds of bubble wrap. 

The Dollhouse followed me from Pennsylvania to Delray Beach, Florida, to 7 different addresses in Eugene, Oregon to 4 different addresses in the Tampa Bay area. While at address number 3 of four in Tampa Bay, 1 of 2 in Safety Harbor, my sister flew down 3 Christmases ago when Luna was about to be 3 to help me put together the Dollhouse for her all over again. Because my sister was here, my husband was able to just hang with my brother-in-law with no dollhouse responsibility.

As we had some wine and I annoyingly sang "Do you wanna build a dollhouse?" in the tune of the Frozen hit, "Do you wanna build a snowman?," we got it done on Christmas Eve. Luna liked the dollhouse but was still pretty young. This was one of those cases when I just couldn't wait for her to have it.

Fast forward to a new house and the dollhouse came intact just before she turned 4. My mom moved into our new grown up house with us and it was the first time my daughter had had her own big kid room. She had co-slept with us (see car accident posts) much later than I had ever imagined but I just thought she needed a room that was her haven.

She seemed to be okay with some snuggles and didn't have any potty issues at night, but then started having crazy nightmares that made her scared of her dream. She ended up in our bed and driving us all crazy for so long, me most. It was ugly. I was not getting sleep, so much that I literally asked friends if I could come to their homes to nap. They all thought I was being silly, sarcastic Alison. No seriously, I just wanted uninterrupted sleep. We were way past infancy. This was not okay.

You know how you make all these decisions based on "I'd never do that with MY kid?" Well, hear comes one to rear it's ugly head. Much like I said a dog would never sleep in bed with us and our pug is like an extra pillow, I maintained that Luna would sleep in her crib and her own bed, even if it was in or very close to our room. 

By nine exhausting months, 4 of me working 12AM to 6AM from home for HSN, we were fully co-sleeping. I was so exhausted of the "Isn't she sleeping through the night by now?," commentary that made the mom shame almost as heavy as my eyelids. The kid took her place in the bed and didn't leave for years. In fact, I was making her a big kid room at our old place when we got in the car accident and with her recovery, left her another 3 months of HAVING to sleep next to me as she was in casts. 

Back to age almost 4 and I'm discussing my sleeplessness with everyone and none of my tricks or bribery or anything are working. I'm starting to suffer in more ways than one when finally a close friend and mother of two, and by far the sweetest, most calm and patient mother told me that they had gone through the same thing with their daughter, also calm, quiet and polite, and they had to sleep train her by reversing the lock on the door and locking her in there for about a week. "The first nights are the worst. I had to wear headphones because of the crying," she admitted.

I was in shock and awe and I thought, "I could never do that...could I?" Finally, with my mom going out of town for the night and my husband working with no possible return until at least 3AM, I planned for the lock in. I had to. I couldn't take it anymore.

So, alone, on a weeknight I planned it. It did not go well. Luna was screaming so loud and crying and screaming I was actually afraid that, being so new to the neighborhood, I might get the cops called on me for child abuse because she was loud, much like her mother. It was HORRIFIC. 

She screamed for a good 30 minutes and then the destruction began. I heard things being hurled at the door. First small things like stuffed animals and books. But then I heard what sounded like heaps of plastic. I wanted to rush in there but I couldn't cave! I had to stay strong.

The kicking and screaming subsided a bit and I knew she was still in there awake so I went to check. It looked like a hurricane hit and she had taken the dollhouse apart in pieces and chucked it at her locked door. The mama bear, hurt child who saw a precious toy that I saved and shared in pieces all over the floor of the house I worked so hard to get turned me into a MOMster. 

Somehow I didn't unleash any unfavorable words I just kept yelling in some kind of loud but even tone: "This is not okay, unacceptable behavior. This was a very very bad choice and this is not okay. You broke the dollhouse! You broke this from mommy and it was mommy's and you broke my heart! You heart mommy's feelings!" 

I picked up the dollhouse pieces only and put them in bags and boxes, like shattered wreckage from the destruction, and locked her back in. If I recall I had a couple glasses of wine. Alone and tired and filled with tears we both gave up in our own rooms. That was the only night we ever had to lock her in and it was BRUTAL, especially alone.

The dollhouse stayed dormant and resting for 2 Christmases until it's resurrection this past holiday. After everything my sister did for me and that dollhouse TWICE, I never had the heart to tell her Luna destroyed it. When I told my best friend she told me that she gave her youngest her American Girl doll too young and her little one covered her doll's entire face in "T's" to mark her territory and she learned to be very careful in sharing too quick because if they aren't quite old enough, they can't truly appreciate the gravity of the gift.

Side note, I have 2 American Girl Dolls awaiting Luna. She may not get them until she's 20. But, she did get the dollhouse again this past year. It was my 2nd time assembling and my husband's first. He learned quickly this was no small feat.

This time it is different. She loves it and appreciates that it was mine and how special it is. That poor dollhouse definitely won't survive her, or it may very carefully but it has seen a lot. As far as sleep training? I hate that phrase and sometimes hate that I ever did that, but I think she's better for it. She still visits us nightly but it is worlds better now. We also still have the locks switched to keep her in and that's always a fun threat...I would take the dollhouse out first though if it came to it again. Plus then I could play without her rules!