The planet-friendly electric blanket

When we lived in Australia we used something called the electric blanket in the winter.  It’s a contraption that goes under the sheets and once plugged in and turned on, it heats up so that you don’t have to get into a cold bed.

Note that we lived in Canberra – not Sydney or Brisbane or Darwin – and Canberra winters are cold and most Canberra houses do not have central heating.  Our only heater was the size of a shoebox (well, actually the size of about 3 shoeboxes) and it was in the dining/living room, far away from the bedroom.

We truly appreciated our electric blanket during the winters there but needless to say we haven’t used it since we moved to London – houses here do in general have central heating and some even have double glazed windows!  (I’m being sarcastic here because I think ALL houses in the UK should have double glazed windows).

Sometimes our bed is just a little bit too cold though in the evening so here’s what we’ve done – we have trained our 3-year old to sleep in our bed until it’s time for us to get in.  We then lift him back into the boys’ bunk bed and hop into our nicely warmed up bed.

The only trouble with this eco ‘electric blanket’ of ours is that it keeps coming back to our bed at midnight for the rest of the night and then things get way too hot (and restless).

I’m so not ready to pull the plug yet though… a bit because I do like a warm bed when I first get in, but mostly because I do not like to do the thing called Controlled Crying of a Hyperventilating 3-Year Old.

I have become so weak in my old age :)  So for now our bed-heating system continues…  I might pull the plug once the weather has warmed up properly :)