Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Would you have your bedroom on a different floor to your DC?

29 replies

ChairOfInvisibleStudies · 17/09/2022 21:24

We're house hunting at the moment and a lot of properties in this area are converted bungalows, often with just one medium-sized or two quite small upstairs bedrooms. At the moment we just have one small DS so we could make it work for now, but if we have any more DC and when he/they get older, at some point the only way the room configuration would make sense would be for the DC to have the upstairs room(s) and DH and I to have a bedroom downstairs. Would you be happy with this and at what age might it make sense?

OP posts:
WildfellAnne · 17/09/2022 21:26

Yes, completely fine. I’d set it up as soon as they were in their own room- definitely by six months.

reluctantbrit · 17/09/2022 21:27

We converted the loft when DD was 4.5 and she moved up just before she turned 5.

We never had any problems. We installed two-way light switches and had our bedroom door open for a year or so in case she felt not safe coming down and was calling.

She is now 15 and loves the fact that we are not on the same floor :-)

mishmased · 17/09/2022 21:28

We currently do. We're in a 4 bed 3 floor house with the attic converted. 1 bedroom on top floor and 3 bedrooms on second floor. We have the top bedroom with en-suite. Two Dc share one room and baby uses the other. The fourth is used as an office/ two DC extra room if they want to sleep elsewhere instead of their room.

Glittertwins · 17/09/2022 21:53

We had a loft conversion starting when they were two years old.We are upstairs, they were downstairs. Now mid teens and survived without any incidents!

Kite22 · 17/09/2022 21:56

Yes. Why ever not ?
We did. Well 1st and 2nd floor, rather than ground and first.

BestZebbie · 17/09/2022 21:56

I'd sleep on another floor (once no longer babies), but I'd never have them deeper into the house than myself as in a fire I would want to pick them up on the way out rather than having to head up into a loft etc to get them.

ArialAnna · 17/09/2022 21:57

Yes, our DCs have always been on the floor above us (we live in a 3 floor narrow townhouse).

FatEaredFuck · 17/09/2022 21:59

I couldn't with little ones.

FridayiminlovewithRobertSmith · 17/09/2022 22:00

Personally I’d only do it with older children

MistressIggi · 17/09/2022 22:02

No I rejected houses for this reason as well, I don't like it in holiday houses either

NancyDrooo · 17/09/2022 22:05

BestZebbie · 17/09/2022 21:56

I'd sleep on another floor (once no longer babies), but I'd never have them deeper into the house than myself as in a fire I would want to pick them up on the way out rather than having to head up into a loft etc to get them.

Interesting. I felt the opposite, I didn’t want to take the attic room for us, as if a burglar got in he’d reach the kids first. Point taken about fire though.

YourLipsMyLipsApocalypse · 17/09/2022 22:07

Yes, it's what we have. I wouldn't have done it when they were little, but by 7/8 they can easily come down if they needed anything so went for it.

It's good in a way, we still feel like we have our own space when we go to bed, and I don't have to get up with them early at weekends, I can keep an ear out as I'm dozing.

Geminio · 17/09/2022 22:23

We live in a bungalow with a loft conversion, kids upstairs with us downstairs.
We have a small office downstairs which we used as the nursery when the kids were babies.
DD1 went upstairs just before she was 2 as was pregnant with DD2. DD2 went up at about 3 years as not a good sleeper and couldn’t be doing with going up and down stairs at night.
I sometimes wish we were all on one floor, just to make dealing with night wakings easier, but it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker if we were moving.

Pleasecouldihavesomeadvice · 17/09/2022 22:25

I hated being in the loft room when my children were babies. Multiple night wake ups going up and down stairs was a killer

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 17/09/2022 22:27

Mine and dh bedroom is on the main floor of the home (flat) and our dc have been up in the next floor since they were 3 & 6 respectively. No bother. Once they are well into their teens, we will put them down on the main floor and turn the whole attic into a master suite.

WashableVelvet · 17/09/2022 22:30

This never occurred to me as a thing to worry about. We’ve been on a separate floor ever since DC were 6m. Unfortunately it isn’t a mansion so no risk of not hearing them in an emergency 😂 we do have a baby monitor but it’s just to spy on them winding each other up etc as we hear them wake anyway.

Original poster
ChairOfInvisibleStudies · 17/09/2022 22:32

Thanks everyone, interesting range of views but sounds like most people would be happy by the time the DC are mid-primary age ish, which sort of chimes with what we were thinking. As DS is my first and I don't have that much experience with children in general, although logically I know he will grow and become more independent, it's quite hard to imagine at the moment!

OP posts:
FromEden · 17/09/2022 22:34

Yes, our master suite is on the ground floor and rest of the bedrooms are upstairs. Probably wouldn't have felt comfortable with it when dd was a baby but its fine now that she is older.

Snugglemonkey · 17/09/2022 22:38

No, I would not be happy with it. We have just bought a house, but we ruled out a load of houses for this reason.

oceanbleu · 17/09/2022 22:39

We live in a town house. Our bedrooms on the second floor and 2yo sleeps below. It's been totally fine. He moved there around 16mo and we kept a baby monitor on but would be able to hear crying without to be honest. Totally fine.

ReadyForPumpkins · 17/09/2022 22:41

Yes I would but my children are 8 and 11. I think from 6 or 7 they are fine. Is the second room big enough for the children to share when they are very young? Then when the older goes to junior school he can move upstairs?

Tootiredtoogiveatoss · 17/09/2022 22:43

Yes we had loft conversion when my children were 4 and 6 to make way for their baby brother.
Honestly it was absolutely fine and TBH I didn’t give it too much thought…the children were so excited having their own floor and they were a few steps away As teenagers it was a brilliant arrangement ..win win !

MistressIggi · 17/09/2022 22:51

I wouldn't want it for the same reason I wouldn't want to sit away from them on an aeroplane!

MistressIggi · 17/09/2022 22:56

...but i am a worry-wart!

Caterina99 · 17/09/2022 23:10

We moved house last year and my DS (now 7) is on a different floor. I wouldn’t have liked it when he was small, but now he’s so rarely awake in the night that it’s completely fine. Any issues he just shouts (have always heard him) or he comes and gets us.