Attachment Parenting

There is no specific time in which bed sharing has to end though most children will voluntarily want to move to their own generally at some point before they hit puberty. The age when bed sharing children will be ready to move to their own bed can very. If your OK with letting your older child stay in your family bed for now then don't worry about it. If at some point you decide you have had enough with bed sharing for some reason, even if he is not showing signs he is ready to move on his own, you can take steps to encourage your older child to accept moving to his own bed. I'm still sharing the family bed with my 2 1/2 YO DS with no immediate need or desire to move him to his own bed before he's ready.

Dominic still comes into bed with us most night and he'll be 4 in a couple of weeks. We haven't made an issue out of it. I noticed when we were in Italy, some of our room had a twin next to our bed and in that situation he was fine being in his own bed all night. Both of my kids get put to sleep in their own beds and then they come in some time in the night.

I really haven't pushed the issue yet. You may want to have him start in his new bed and let him know he can come into your bed when he wakes up. That may work as a compromise.

I love to spend the first part of the morning wearing an oversized t-shirt.  DH loves to change into a t-shirt when he gets home from work.  Each night when it was bedtime, I would grab DH's t-shirt from the prior night, and mine that was usually worn 2-3 times from the laundry basket.  DS would lay on top of one and have the other one as a blankey in addition to his special blankey.  We also did co-napping so DS wasn't completely cut off from sleeping with us.

BTW, if you are into tenting, co-sleeping is a blessing.  Your child is used to being in the same room as you and has no problem sharing a "room" with mom and dad in the tent.  I recently heard a tale of woe of a horrible summer camping because the children weren't used to being that near to their parents.