AIBU not to give my children a double bed each?

[TheCherries]

I am in the process of decorating new bedrooms for my two young teenagers.

Both are insistent their friends all now have double beds and it isn’t fair I am making them keep their single beds.

Changing their beds isn’t an option we don’t have the budget for it anyway but it got me thinking is it really a rite of passage to have a double bed as a teenager?

Surely you wait until you are an age to share the bed with another. My feeling is the larger the bed the more you get used to spreading out.

I would prefer to keep the single bed with guest bed underneath for sleepovers and enjoy the extra space in their rooms the rest of the time.

We have two spare bedrooms so we don’t need to double up the use of their beds for relatives staying over.

Do yours have a double bed?

DD is 14 and has been in a 4ft bed since she was about 8.

She was always going to be tall and need the extra room so we planned ahead.

Currently 5' 7 and size 9 feet and still growing so just as well!

I would love to buy my older teen DD a double bed but there just isn't space in her bedroom along with a large wardrobe and a desk.
She spends a lot of time with her boyfriend - he has more space and a double bed at his house. I think we'd see more of them if she had a double bed at home!

I got a double when I was 16 and started seeing my now DH. He had a double at his parent's house so I was always staying over there as we had more room. My parents bought me one so they'd actually see me some nights 😂

I don't understand this. Modern houses are often very small. How on earth do people find the space? I'd much rather have a single and use the space for other things. In fact I have a single bed myself (as a middle aged person).
My teenagers have never mentioned this, and share a bunk bed.

My DD(3) has a double... but only because we live in a 3 bed house and that's the bed we had and the cot had to be vacated for DC#2! Also we are keen sleepers so like our beds! Don't show your teenage daughters this post OP!

I didn't get a double bed until I was 21 and had a boyfriend. It didn't bother me though - my bed was super comfy.

My 10 year old has a king size 😂😂😂

@fleshmarketclose good point. I got a double bed at 16 as the bunk beds my parents had bought 15 years earlier were knackered

If you were going to be replacing their beds anyway, then I’d get a double ready for the future, either as a guest bed or for them to come and stay with their future partner. If you can’t afford new beds then you can’t afford new beds. They’ll cope!

My poor 21yo coming home from university still has to manage with his single loft bed in his box room. If his girlfriend comes to stay they sleep on the sofa bed in the living room. The time goes surprisingly quickly from teenager to adult, though.

I was rather surprised when attending a work colleague’s house warming to see he had a single bed in his room on the guided tour. Definitely seemed odd for a single 40 year old bloke in his bachelor pad!

I didn’t have a double until I moved in with DP. I loved my bed, it was hand carved oak. None of my friends had double beds, boys or girls, I was a teen in the 90’s.

My DSs do and have had since they were in their early teens. DS1s was his birthday present as there wasn't anything else he wanted and DS2 moved into the spare room not long after as he'd grown out of the smallest room and buck beds and we had few overnight visitors anyway. However the main reason was that they are both really tall and it just gave them a bit more space to sleep diagonally

My older ones got double beds when they reached secondary school age. Also, you have a 5 bedroom house but don't have the budget for new beds?

I had one from 14 and last year my two children got a double each at just turned 8 years old. I wanted them to go from a cot to a double, but thought they were just too little for a double, so bought singles, then upgraded to doubles. I did consider purchasing Australian Queen size beds (which are the same as UK King size beds) as they have big rooms, but still thought that was too much bed for little bodies. They love the extra room they have now and these beds will be suitable to at least senior school.

All my children (12, 9 and 7) sleep in double beds. They get on really well and like to sleep in with each other. My two DDs (12 & 9) only sleep together in one bed.

They're handy for sleepovers, the kids prefer them and it made sense to get them doubles instead of singles when replacing their beds because I figured they'd want them one day anyway.

However, if you can't afford it yet, don't do it. When you can then I would definitely say get doubles instead of singles.

dd 11 who is 5ft6 has a single bed she was offered a king size bed but said she's happy with her bed.
She has plenty of room for a bigger bed, her rooms has big has mine.

For those sharing bedrooms, do you have two doubles in one room then? Or one double for two siblings? How do people have space for all these double beds, my DD’s room wouldn’t have enough room to open the door with a double bed in there 😂

When I was 8 or 9 I asked for a double duvet as I like wrapping myself up in it around my shoulders. I had that for a few years and then my mum got pregnant and the guest room was becoming a baby room. I asked if I could have the guest bed (a double).
I have no trouble sleeping on single beds. I have big trouble sleeping with a single duvet - took a double duvet to uni.
My little sisters are similar. Double duvets on single beds, until 14 when rooms were re done and they both got double beds.

As a teen and my sisters now, used double beds for sprawling on, reading on, working on, revising on.

You can get a double bed for less than £100, a mattress as well is less than £100. If there is space and you are redoing bedrooms anyway then I think you should.
If its budget related, tell them how much the budget is and let them pick their priorities for their room. Are birthdays coming up? Can they have the option of waiting till then and adding in birthday money?
All of this puts it back in their court while not overspending but listening to them.

Dd19 had her room redecorated with new furniture and a double bed at 18. We couldn’t have afforded it before. She has a single at uni but loves to come home to her lovely double bed at the end of term.

Yanbu

Totally unnessary and a sign of our wasteful society. Think of the washing.

When I was 13 I had a single but my sister upgraded to a double so I ended up with my single plus her bunk beds in my room (single up the top and then the bottom was a sofa that turned into a double bed) and I used to alternate sleeping between each bed on a weekly rotation I think it messed me up because now much to my DHs disgust I insist on swapping sides of the bed every few weeks, and he thinks I'm a heathen.

I wish mine could. But they share a room as it’s a 2 bed flat. When ds19’s girlfriend sleeps over, ds14 is kicked out of his room to the sofa (he doesn’t mind), and I often go in to wake them, take them coffee, and they are both cuddled up in his single- he’s 6ft 1, luckily she’s tiny. But they don’t complain.🤷🏻‍♀️

Our children have had doubled since they were quite young, I can't remember what age but maybe about 6 or 7. We have a super king size bed though so singles seem tiny.

I'm not sure if it's the 'norm'.

Sorry that's not really relevant

Plenty of teenagers (and adults) manage perfectly well in single beds, OP. It's fine to stick with what you have. And if they really want double beds, they can save up their own money for them, I suppose.

*Doubles not doubled.