Sharing rooms

Do any of your kids share a room? How old are the roomies? How does it work out? I always thought the girls would eventually share a room but we're going to have to do it sooner than I thought. Julian is surprise #3 and we bought a 3 bedroom house. If we were staying here a few more months, I could probably manage but I just can't live with his stuff all over our room for another year. So we are going to move DD2 (just turned 2 in March) into DD1's room (she is turning 5 next month). DD1 is very excited. . .DD2 not so much (I have just casually asked her if she wanted to move into sister's room). We aren't going to do the move until a few weeks after Daddy gets home and we settle down.

Any tips?

Re: Sharing rooms

My older two daughters shared a room for a year or so. It worked well. DD1 was the one most excited and DD2 quickly came around. My kids sleep pretty well at night but I found that having them in the same room did cut down on the occasional night waking and also waking me after nightmares, etc. I think that they found having someone else in the room to be a comfort. They shared a full size bed. Some of my favorite memories of that age are them snuggled up together like kittens.

One thing that was a bit of an issue but worked itself out -- when we moved to a house with a bedroom for each child, DD2 was reluctant to sleep alone. She slept in a toddler bed in DD1s room for a few months before moving into her own room. She got a big girl bed in , we painted the room, and she was fine with moving into her own room.

[Momo]

Re: Sharing rooms

Both of the girls share a room. DD1 is 4(2/3/04) and DD2 is 2(9/9/05) it works our fine. DD1 falls asleep easily and deeply. DD2 can be a chatty Kathy and has been know to irritate her older brother across the hall
DS1(10/02/02) will be sharing a room w/ DS2 (05/03/07)as soon as I set up one of the cribs in there.
DH & I are looking into buying another home(out growing this one) more than likely they will all get their own rooms.
It actually seems to foster closeness when they are younger. I used to think that it would be a b!tc# when they would get sick, but ITE they all usually get sick together!

Growing up we had a girls room & boys room there were 5 of us: 3girls and 2 boys.

Re: Sharing rooms

My boys share even though we have 2 empty bedrooms. I've always planned on one being a guest room and one being for when (fingers crossed) we have another baby (we've been here 3 years). My guys are 5.5 and 7, but they've shared since #2 was out of the crib.

[houseelf]

Re: Sharing rooms

..when we moved to a house with a bedroom for each child, DD2 was reluctant to sleep alone.

Yup, we are STILL going through this ten months later. For the most part, I think there are a lot of benefits of room sharing.

Kelly

[Phoebe]

Re: Sharing rooms

We had the opposite experience. Dd1 was 4.5 and DD2 was 2.5. For 6 months they shared a room and it was mostly a nightmare. They thought it was a slumber party, emphasis on the party. Dd1 would get tired, but DD2 would just keep instigating. We eventually gave up and moved them to separate rooms. Now that they are older, we have had them share a room a grandma's house and it works ok. DD2 has that class clown type of personality.

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: Sharing rooms

We have no choice but to share rooms. The twins have shared since before birth, and are still sharing b/c it's been easier to keep them together. Now that Luke is older (almost 4) we're moving Steven into Luke's room to be the "boys" room- in a couple of weeks. I'm certain we will have some issues (Steven doesn't need much sleep, gets up really early, etc.) but they share when we have guests over and it's OK. We do use the sound machines to keep the roomies from waking each other up too much.

Isabel will share with the baby when the baby is about 4 months or so-- whenever he/she outgrows the bassinet. THAT will be the big challenge.

Kate is the only one who really doesn't share space well, at all. She never has- even when she was younger and really wanted a roomate to keep her company at night- she just likes her own routine and she makes it a nightmare for the entire family whenever she needs to share her room for even just a week, like when we have visitors.

I dream of each kid getting their own room! Around here that would cost about $600K, so it's just not happening for a while...

All in all-- with the kids sharing a room: less night waking, almost NO waking up of parents. With Kate alone in her room: she would often end up sleeping on the floor in our room- she would get "scared" or something. So for young kids (still elem. school) I think generally sharing rooms is great. No one wants to share a room with a baby! Good luck getting everyone situated-- hopefully Dad can help make it fun for the girls.

[GrayMatterWife]

Re: Sharing rooms

DS (4 in July) and DD (to be born in Sept.) will share a room, once DD is no longer in a crib, until at least the end of fellowship (in July, DH will have four more years of residency, plus one of fellowship). We have a two bedroom condo which is perfectly located a couple of blocks from the hospital--I ain't movin', so that's just the deal. Hopefully, when we move after that, we can get a place with enough bedroooms so that DS (who will be in later elementary school by then) can have his own digs.

While DD is in a crib, she will sleep in the dining room. It's so funny...we have a formal dining room and her crib will be up against a wall, next to the bar cabinet and a china cabinet. The room is sort of crimson with bright white chair rail and crown molding. Definitely not the usual surroundings of Pooh or clowns or flowers! Something tells me, she'll live. It will be fine--and a lot better than making my poor DS share a room with a crying infant.

For whatever it's worth, my sister, brother and I all had our own rooms growing up and I often think that it would have been a lot better for my relationship with my sister if we'd shared. We were only 17 months apart, but absolutely hated each other growing up. We fought brutally and made life incredibly nasty. We shared nothing and had no respect for each other. I think part of that was due to the fact that we never HAD to get along--we could always just shut the door. Plus, we sort of felt "entitled" to certain things--privacy, the exclusive use of our toys, our own space, etc. A little bit of forced sharing and interacting would have done each of us a world of good. We would have learned the art of compromise, negotiation--and the need for a little compassion.

DH had to share a room with his younger brother for years and it worked out just fine.

[Phoebe]

Re: Sharing rooms

I'm hopefully moving the girls in together this Christmas. I forsee some issues because Isabel will only be 2.5 and I see her getting out of her toddler bed, well, because she can, :

Wait... stop the presses. When did this happen? Isabel turning 2.5? I need pictures. I don't believe it unless I see it. Where has the time gone?