Thinking about Great Grandma and her 11 siblings

[thursdaysgirls]

So yet again sleep eludes me and Im thinking of my Great Grandma. She is one of 12 kids and they lived in 3 bed house. No inside loo. No bathroom. 6 kids per bedroom. Slept in double and single beds shoved together. No central heating. No double glazing.

My 2 DDs aged 5 and almost 3 always sleep in the same bed despite having bunk beds. DSS sleeps on sofa bed in LR every other weekend. DH and I thinking of TTC next Spring. People in general that Ive casually mentioned this to seem to think wed be over crowded. House has 2 bedrooms. Our room is much bigger than average double room. Even if I got preggo straight away it would be another 18 months maybe more till baby was born and then another 9-12 months on top till itd need to go in DDs bedroom.

Tho compare to conditions when Great Gran was kid, we have a mansion. Cant understand why folk balk at the idea of us having another child (my DDs are from previous long term relationship) especially a Im one of 5, DH is one of 4 and I have a brood of step sibling on both sides that come to a grand total of 11.

That's what we did. When DC3 was born, the DDs were 4 and 2. We had a tiny two bedroom terraced house. They slept together quite happily in their bedroom (often in the same bed, or together on the floor!) and DS slept in with us (either co-sleeping or eventually in a cot) until we moved when he was 18 months. He would have been quite happy in their room, although it would have been a squeeze getting another bed in there - we'd have had to have taken out their chest of drawers and put them in our bedroom where his cot was.

They only used their bedroom for sleeping, all playing was downstairs in the living room. It is doable.

Next door had a similar size house and four children and I have to admit I did often wonder how they did it, especially as they were a lot older, and sometimes had an older step brother over to stay!

We have a four bedroom place now, with one bedroom used as a playroom, and I am expecting DC4. The DDs (now 7 and almost 5) still share a bed even though they have separate bedrooms which we put them to sleep in!! DS shares a room with DD2 and DC4 will come in with us before eventually migrating somewhere, we haven't decided yet.

I shared with either my big sister or my little brother until I was in my early to mid teens.. then my parents partitioned (stud walls) the big room I shared so we had our own personal space.

In my opinion, when they're little, bedrooms are fine just for sleeping in if space is at a premium - there's plenty of other places to play where there is more space!

My oldest 3 choose to share a bedroom, leaving our third bedroom as a playroom, until the oldest started secondary school. They now have 2 in 1 bedroom and 1 in another (now also 2 more dcs in 4th bedroom). They still swap around regularly, so we have 2 beds in each of the rooms and they have to share a bed or sleep on the floor if they all share 1 room.

I think it sounds as if you could squeeze in another child. How it works when they are all older just depends on them and can't be predicted,

I said just now on another thread that the expectation that children have a bedroom each, is a very modern one.