To share a bedroom or not???

[SuperAmoo]

I have a DD who is 4.4 and is happily installed in a bedroom that she loves. DD2 is 10 months and as she is still waking up three times a night to feed, is still in with us. But I am starting to think ahead and am just going round and round and blinkin round trying to decide if the DDs should share a bedroom or not and if so, how the hell would it work with such a big age gap? Any thoughts?

I shared with my brother who is 4 years older than me for years, I think it would be fine especially as they are both girls for a few years, although when you DD hits seconadry school then thats the time she will really need her own space..thats my opinion!

Mine have 2 years between them and shared until last September when DD1 was 12. It worked fine most of the time, but we knew we would have to have an extension (and thereby gain an extra bedroom) once she had started at High School.

DD (5.6) and ds (2.2) currently share a room, despite ds waking most nights. DD is a really deep sleeper and is very rarely woken by him - even at full volume! Is your elder dd a deep sleeper?

It kind of works for us, although I don't envisage it happening for long term - maybe another year or two - depending on how they're getting on, and at which point dd would like some privacy. As yours are both girls, I'm sure it could work for a while.

I guess that's one of the big issues for me is that neither of my DDs are deep sleepers. They're ridiculously light sleepers infact. And my eldest is profoundly materialistic in a way that her friends aren't - I feel she needs her own bedroom for all her stuff because she's so protective of it. What I really don't understand is how does bedtime work if your children share a room - my ten month old often cries a little before she goes to sleep so DD1 would have to come to be after. But that would wake DD2 up immediately and plus even though DD1 goes to bed at 7, she's often awake playing, singing and chatting, reading until 9 or later because she hates sleep. Although I want to keep our spare room for visiting parents, the fact is, they only come to stay once a year each - it seems silly to factor that in to deciding whether DD2 should have her own room. How do your bedtime routines work with two siblings in the same room with a big age gap?

my gut feeling here is that sharing a room would help your 4 year old in becoming less precious/selfish with her toys. I shared with my sister who was 8 years younger until i was 12, yes at times it was a pain but it helped us bond and taught us to share....

thanks for everyones comments. Issysmilkbottle - that's what part of me hopes - that it would knock abit of the selfishness out of my eldest. And I hoped it would help them to bond. I guess we'll give it a go and see - I think I'll post separately about bedtime routines for siblings.

If it's an issue, and you have a spare room, use the spare room.
Get a sofabed for DPs.
DD will need more sleep when she starts school, if she hasn't already.

Just a point about your DDs being light sleepers, both of mine were as well until they started to share in Nov, my eldest was so bad if the floorboards creaked in the hallway she'd wake up, since sharing they both sleep through the other waking up and screaming - I think it's something to do with the comfort of someone else being in the room. Like you they didn't need to share but we also have lots of guests and like knowing the bedrooms there and not having to get out the sofabed.

Thanks Dipsymum. I also need the spare room to keep my stock in (I work from home) so it wouldn't be that easy to get rid of the spare room. I think I will give it a go and see what happens. Should stop analysing things so much perhaps!

Could you just put them in separate rooms and use that bedroom as a guest room when your parents visit and put them together or one with you at that time?

But I also second the opinion that perhaps having her share her room will make her less precious of her "things".

That's a good idea. I hadn't thought of that.

b