To think the child should have the room?

My son loves his small room. I offered him my room and he didn’t want to swap. He likes the coziness of it.

Not everyone has the space for a 'playroom' and separate bedrooms for all their kids. If you do, that's great but not everyone has that.

Maybe the kid chose the room ? Not everyone wants the same things.

I would hate my kids to be that far away at night and they would hate it too. My youngest would be scared if he wasn't close to my room. Possibly they plan to move the child up when they're older and need more space. Not sure why you are so bothered by it?

I know a few parents who don’t like young children sleeping on a different floor to them. It’s probably this. Also leaves guests on a different floor so privacy all round.

In our house it's the same because:

A) I don't want to be on a separate floor to my children

And

B) I don't believe having toys in bedrooms is good for children.

Our children have a playroom and all their toys live in there. We want to encourage "family" as much as possible and reduce the amount of time our kids spend alone in their rooms. At least until the teenage years!

Are you actually for real? Stay in your own lane love. It's absolutely none of your business.

DD would actually love just a bed room for sleeping with no other distractions. As long as she had space for her stuff else where it's not an issue.

But I expect the bedroom has remarkable chimney pieces like the rest of Rosings Park?

When i was a teen I absolutely craved the box room but my mean parents would not let me swap from my huge Victorian room

interested in your use of “middle class” as an indicator of being nice parents…

My children have trouble sleeping in separate beds from us, let alone on a completely different floor.

My son is 9 and he has the attic to himself. We only moved in 2 months ago. Reading this thread has made me feel bad but he honestly loves it up there! He's our eldest.
Wr have 3 bedrooms on the 1st floor but the box room has been converted into an office.
There could be all manner of reasons your friend has it set up like that.

Our old house had two bedrooms on the first floor and two in the attic. I specifically moved before having a second child because the practicalities and fire risk stuff of having different floors made me feel weird.

My children sleep and change clothes in their rooms and that is about it. They don’t have toys upstairs beyond stuffed toys in their beds. They don’t have wardrobes because they only own about six garments between them that need hanging so they just go in mine.

They have ample space to play, do homework, leave toys out, read and hang out with friends in the social space part of the house downstairs, which is where all the toys and books are. I much prefer them not isolated off in their rooms for hours anyway. They actually have quite big bedrooms just because of the house layout, but they’d be fine in box rooms. To use the current social media term they are “living room kids” not “bedroom kids” - maybe Hannah’s are the same.

I really don’t see the issue with Hannah’s house.

It's probably been thought about and discussed by your friend.

One of my children has a small room. (Small wardrobe, single bed, desk, bookshelves) and won't go to the larger room which is on the next floor. They say the room is cosy and their room.

I, therefore find myself with a massive office all for myself!!

My parents asked me which room I wanted when my younger brother was born, I chose the tiny box room. Maybe the child chose that room

I have a friend like this - four bed house with three bedrooms on the middle floor. Two of those bedrooms are large doubles and the other is a box room. Their son’s room is the tiny box room. Can’t get my head round why that’s his room!!!!

We're redoing our spare room/office. We offered DS could move in there, as he currently has the smallest room. He declined. He likes his room and he tends to play downstairs or sometimes in DD's room.

Maybe they have people to stay regularly and the box room isn’t big enough for this. We have a similar situation. Our second biggest bedroom is a guest room/office/gym and youngest DC has the smallest bedroom. This is how the space works for us. We may change it as he gets older.

I'm guessing they want both dc on the same floor as them. Probably havnt changed them since they were babies

My kids were on a different floor to us when babies! So that's not a problem to me but other think differently. Maybe the eight year old likes her bedroom.

it's important to clarify that neither of the kids have to share a room with the whippets and/or all 4 grandparents sharing a single bed hoping in vain to win a golden ticket to a chocolate factory, innit?

I agree with other posters
a) not your business
b) unless Hannah said the 8 y/o specifically asked for a bigger room and she refused, there's no issue

At 8 and 10 neither of my children would have wanted to be on a different floor to me and one in particular would have ended up in with me every night if he was on the top floor alone. Also while mine did have their own decent sided rooms they rarely played in them and brought their toys downstairs to play

My DD, when she was aged 12, chose to move into the box room from a big double room! She likes the cosiness, she says. Even now, I've offered for her to move back into the large room and do it up a bit, as it's just spare, but she likes her tiny room. It has a large window spanning most of one wall and a nice view. It's her choice but I'm sure if people who didn't know us well had a house tour, they would think we're mean parents!

I regularly have to turf one of my kids out of their room for guests, and it’s a pain.

If we had a spare room I’d definitely put a child in the box room and keep a guest room in a double, particularly if it could also be used as an office.