To share or not to share (a children's bedroom conundrum)

[pegasus02]

Parents of troubled sleepers, do your little ones share a bedroom with a sibling? Does it work?

We have an almost 2-year old DD (very light sleeper, still not sleeping through the night) and a baby on the way. In the next year, we will have to decide whether they can share a bedroom once the baby is old enough, or if they have to take a huge bedroom and a box room between them. So many factors here I realise, but I wanted to get the thoughts of parents of bad sleepers in particular please - did your little ones share rooms successfully? Or am I better off giving them the very unequal rooms and hope they're not bothered?

Thank you

We have enough bedrooms for my twins to have one each.

They wake each other up at stupid o clock in the morning and have a little party.

They refuse to be separated.

I found my two slept better when they shared a room. Apart from occasionally playing instead of going to sleep, we never had any problems. Mostly the eldest would read to his little brother and theyd both conk out after 20 mins, it was lovely.

Dont be too worried about changing though whichever you decide

We had an 11 month gap between our two and I had the exact same conundrum.. when it came time for my youngest to move out of our room we gave her the box room as my son was already in the bigger room. She was a terrible sleeper, he was really good from day 1. After a few horrible months we tried moving her into his room, since then her sleeping has improved dramatically! I think she liked the comfort of knowing he was there, and also I think she started copying his good sleeping habits!! We're moving again soon and even though we'll have more bedrooms we're still keeping them together because it works so well.

You can always switch it around if it doesnt work, good luck!

Me and my brother had unequal sized rooms but he was 6 years older. He had the bigger room until I 12 and he was 18 then we switched. This worked well for me and YBH it wasn't longer after that he left home and I got 2 bedrooms

My 7 (now 8) year old boy suffers from anxiety, admittedly mild, but definitely took hold at nights in the form of panic and tummy aches. He and my 6 year daughter started to share, at their request, and it has become a thing of the past. Their relationship has noticeably improved, less squabbling and they are just happier going to bed. Rankles slightly as we are mortgaged to the hilt in a lovely big house with plenty of bedrooms, and the grandparents think it’s ‘odd’, but they are so much happier. Sharing with a sibling is company, comfort and human contact- it’s worked for us! I realise this isn’t entirely relevant as yours are (will be) much younger but I wish I’d had them sharing earlier.

Mine have a big age gap and sharing doesn't seem so sensible as they have different bedtimes etc. However my nearly 5 year old has always had the box room and has never noticed the size difference. In fact I'm just about to put in a cabin bed to hopefully increase the space now he's getting older. However because mine have never shared now when they have to on holiday etc they kick up a fuss about each others annoying habits. So I would encourage occasional sharing from an early age.

Ours, girl & boy with two year age gap, shared from when the youngest was 1 until last year when he was six. It was the smallest room and they were pretty cramped we have a split level landing and the other room is a different level to ours and I wanted it to be easy to get between the two rooms in the dark (for me and them!). The third room was and spare/dumping ground until I cleared it for my nephew to stay last summer. When he left, the youngest moved in of his own accord and they have been happy ever since. Dd is in the smaller room but she kept the bunk bed and thinks it's cosy. They share on hols and when staying at grandparents, and love it. Seems to work well all round but they definitely enjoyed, and benefited from, sharing when they were younger.

Love all the stories of siblings sharing and enjoying the company! 🥰