To think the child should have the room?

[YellowDoorYellowFloor]

I visited an old school friend over Christmas who I will call Hannah.

Hannah lives in a modern town house-type home- bottom floor open plan living/dining room with separate kitchen, middle floor master bedroom with en suite, 2nd reasonable sized room and a 4th bedroom which is really a box room then on the top floor another good sized bedroom and a fair sized landing area with great natural light.

Hannah has 2 DC, aged 10 and 8. The 10 yr old has the reasonable sized room on the middle floor, and the 8yr old is in the box room. The room on the top floor has a bed in for guests and a desk for Hannah for her hobby (neither Hannah nor her DH work from home).

The room the 8yr old is in is so small literally it’s just a single bed and a chest of drawers- no wardrobe, no space for toys or to play (although he does have toys downstairs)

AIBU to be surprised you’d leave one of your children in such a tiny room when there is an alternative?

(I am aware her house, her choices but I really felt for the child. They are very middle class and the children are clearly loved and looked after but I just thought it a strange way to prioritise space. And no, as far as I’m aware there are no regular guests who come to stay)

hes 8 she prob wants him closer to her now and might have plans to move him when he is older.
plus my son was always guided towards the smaller bedrooms as he literally only used his bedrooms to sleep in when tended to play more downstairs so was always given more downstairs space to compensate - while my daughter had a million things in her room so had the bigger room but very little downstairs space.

Pretty obvious they want to be on the same floor for now. No doubt they’ll switch it round in a couple of years if the younger one wants more space.

I can’t imagine having something so irrelevant to your life consume your mind enough to post on Mumsnet. Why on earth is it even on your radar?

There are multiple reasons why the kid may be in that room and none of them are of any concern to you.

I absolutely agree with you but i think its probably only whilst the kids are young

I love this saying. Very appropriate here.

There could be multiple reasons and a few reasons that wouldn't necessarily be told to a friend as it wouldn't be something casually mentioned.

1. Most likely easier to have both children on the same floor as you can listen out for them having them on different floors would be more difficult. I have 3 and wouldn't like them separated over different floors.
2. The child sleeps much better with no distractions in the room. My 2.5yr old has draws and a bed in his room anything else he won't sleep, he has tons of room but yeh you'd hate us for it. Toys are kept elsewhere in the living room for him. Bedrooms are for sleeping in anyway not playing in, why would you want a kid cooped up in their room to play alone?
3. The child has been in that room since he can remember and doesn't like change. He wants to stay in that room even if there's no room for toys.
4. They have toys, they're well looked after, no worries of abuse, it's none of your business if it is reason 1,2 or 3, combination of those reasons or a complete different reason. Just because it's not the way you'd do it is not a reasonable reason to put a good friendship at risk, now if they weren't looked after right or signs of abuse yes absolutely butt in.

Their kids are old enough to talk about it. Obviously they are happy in their rooms. It would be very cosy.

Where are the bathrooms?
Kids like to be near a toilet.

I agree with this post.
In theory, you're right about the set up being strange but when you're actually living in the situation it feels quite different.
I live in a town house, and the house is quite big but it's really, really hard to use the bedrooms.
Middle floor has the main bedroom with the ensuite, too floor, another large room, then a box room.
On the GF there's another room that's often marketed as the 4th bedroom but if you're a family, you don't really want to relegate any of the kids to the room by the front door when you're sleeping upstairs, and when you've got young kids, you don't really want to sleep the floor below them either...those night wakings and running up a flight of stairs are not for the weak legged!

Most families in our house type on this estate have moved not long after their children have moved into their own rooms.

It's so that when they have judgy "friends" to stay they are in an entirely different floor to their family

I think the arrangement probably works well and that at some point the little boy will ask for and be given more space. It really isn’t your business.