Bedroom on a different floor from the kids?

[Rhubarbgarden]

Anyone any experience of this? We are thinking of turning the attic into a big master suite because it has the best views in the house and wonderful exposed beams, and it seems a waste it just being spare bedrooms and storage up there. But the kids would remain on the first floor, and I'm not sure how I feel about this. They are only 2 and a half and 8 months. So it's probably something we could aim to do a bit further down the line. But at what age is it ok to sleep on a different floor from your kids?

[PhyllisDoris]

I don't see why not, as long as you can hear them if they cry, call for you, or are sick in the night.

[Earlybird]

I think it is fine. What exactly are you worried about? If you are concerned that you won't hear them in the night, you could always use a baby monitor.

[Fizzylemonade]

Just use a baby monitor if you are worried you won't hear them. I can hear my two from the next town over

It is no different from you putting them to bed and being downstairs with the tv or radio on. We used a baby monitor when we went on holiday in case they were disorientated when they woke in the night, they are now almost 10 and almost 7!

[sausagesandwich34]

I've always done it since they went into their own rooms and never encountered any issues

I can still hear them if they cry out in the night although they are a bit old for that now

[missnevermind]

We did it the other way. Three bedrooms in the attic for the children and two on the second floor. But the youngest upstairs is 4. DD is 18 months and still in with us and then as the only girl will go in the bedroom on the same floor as us.
We can hear them playing and the 4 year old in the night without a monitor.

[GarbledMessage]

I've had this choice before, and h ave to say that until my kids are muuuch older it would make me uneasy...but I have always been really paranoid about fire/burglary at night (no idea why!) and would hate tp have my kids on a different floor. Heck, I hate having them in a different room. :o

[LovingTheSunshine]

We viewed a house & dismissed it for exactly the same reasons as GarbledMessage.

[lalalonglegs]

I've been on a different floor from my children since the youngest was 18 months. Mine can shout loud enough for it not to be a problem .

[pinkdelight]

We're getting our loft converted right now so we can move up there. Mine are 5 and 2 and wake up way too early. I'd be sleeping in a different wing of the house if there was one!

[megandraper]

We do it the other way - kids (age 5, 3 and 1.5) in attic bedrooms and we are on the floor below.

We use a stairgate to prevent them wandering (or at least make it noisier if the older one comes down)

We leave their doors and ours ajar. I am partly deaf, so don't hear them in the night, but DH (who sleeps nearest the door) hears any noise in the night.

A couple of fireman came round a year or so ago to do a fire safety check (a freebie in our area). They didn't see this arrangement as a problem. They made sure we had a smoke alarm on every floor (and checked the best position for them). They told us to have a 'fire evacuation' plan - which in our case should be - fetch children and go downstairs & out the front door - if the fire prevents us doing that, then to gather everyone in our bedroom with the door shut, open the bedroom window and telephone the fire brigade (they are very close). We put a landline telephone extension in our bedroom, so that we can do this if necessary.

They're too young to play alone in their rooms in the day, but when they do it won't be a problem - there is a stairwell going all the way down the house, and you can hear everything down it.

[Rhubarbgarden]

Thanks. I think we'd hear ds without a problem because his bedroom is directly below, and I guess we could always do a baby monitor for dd. I think it's the burglar/fire thing that's putting me off; at the moment I feel like I could grab them quite quickly if necessary. But also there's a lot of shlepping back and forth to ds in the night at the moment so it's convenient to just be across a corridor. Trailing up and down stairs in the night could get quite tedious quite quickly. But it would be much nicer to sleep up there... Hmm thanks for all the comments it's reassuring to know that loads of people do it quite happily anyway.

[BlueChampagne]

We have, since 21 months/4 years. Can still hear them, but can also close the door in the mornings and get a lie in!

[PrincessScrumpy]

We live in a town house - dd1 was in with us for 3 months but we kept waking her so moved her down to 1st floor, and dtds were in with us for 5.5months then we moved them down.

Most of the evening we are downstairs so not on the same floor anyway, and at night we have a gate on our stairs and dd1 was never allowed up them in the night (she's 5 now so she can if needed but she usually calls us and we hear her from her room).

Never been an issue at all - I thought it would be but I actually love going to bed on a different floor as it is the only grown up zone in the house and we have our own bathroom without toys!

[PrincessScrumpy]

You can ask the fire brigade to come round and they will give advice - we did that and they said to have a phone upstairs and down stairs, in the event of fire take phone and get everyone in one room (preferably at the front or where brigade can easily get to you), shut the door as they are fire proof and give 20mins protection (or longer - cant remember). Open window get low and call fire brigade ASAP. That reassured me.

[NTitled]

I'm considering splitting mine up and putting one (the baby) in the attic bedroom. Said baby is nearly 9, and it's taken me that long to even consider it!!

[irregularegular]

We did it from when they stopped sleeping in our room (i.e., about 6m). Really not a problem. It wasn't as if it was a big rambling house - it was a new house with a single central stairwell - so they really weren't far away.