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Some mothers relish the chance to reclaim their beds after co-sleeping with their babies.
Others like to hold on for a couple of years.
But few would still want to be snuggling up to a child who was on the verge of starting senior school.
Not so former Dragons’ Den star Hilary Devey.
She has admitted she shared a bed with her son until he was ten and that at 29 he can still jump under the covers.
Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women yesterday, Miss Devey, 58, defended her decision to sleep with her only son, Mevlit, for so long, claiming her ‘mother’s instinct’ means she knows what is best for him.
Her comments sparked debate on the programme, with none of the other panellists co-sleeping with their children beyond their first few months and years.
But experts said last night that Miss Devey’s decision is not that unusual, as until recent decades poorer families often shared beds out of necessity because there was only so much space in their homes.
They also pointed out that around the world children sharing beds for longer is seen as more normal than it is in the UK.
Miss Devey said: ‘I slept with my son because the advice then was to sleep with them.
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‘He’s 29 now and the advice then was to sleep with them because I think a mother’s instinct means you know when your child is ill, you know it inside, you know when something is wrong.
‘He slept in my bed, in fact I couldn’t get him out. He was sleeping in my bed until he was probably ten, nine or ten.’
She added that even now, he can sometimes revert to these old habits and said: ‘On a Sunday morning, which I love, reading the Sunday papers in bed, if he’s at home he will come and plop at the side of me and say “what’s the news mum?” and he’ll pick the paper up and he’s lying by the side of me.’
Defence: Speaking on ITV’s Loose Women yesterday, Miss Devey (pictured on the show), 58, defended her decision to sleep with Mevlit for so long, saying her ‘mother’s instinct’ means she knows what is best for him
Having a laugh: The former Dragons’ Den star is seen sharing a joke with Jonathan Ross on Loose Women
Miss Devey, worth an estimated £50million, had an early start in business.
She was just seven when she started helping out in her father’s corner shop and launched her freight distribution company Pall-Ex in 1996, making her first million within three years. She has been divorced three times.
She has previously spoken about her son’s seven-year heroin addiction that began in his teenage years and about how she wished she did not prioritise work over her family.
The discussion on Loose Women was sparked by the reports of the mother in New Zealand who is facing jail after her ten-week old baby died as a result of co-sleeping.
Sparking debate: None of the other panellists on the ITV programme co-slept with their children beyond their first few months and years. Above, Miss Devey is pictured at the Pride of Britain Awards in London in 2011
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