Sharing Bedrooms

[Nutjob]

My ds has an open fire place is his bedroom, and I have been finding a number of wasps buzzing around his room even when the windows are shut. We have come to the conclusion that there may be a nest up the chimney shaft. So until we get it sorted I have moved him in with dd.

It has gone OK so far, but that is because they have both slept right through until morning. What worries me is if one of them wakes up crying or is sick, will it badly disturb the other one? My two have never shared a bedroom and so are not used to having disturbances. I shared a bedroom with my brother and sister for a long time when I was little and don't remember it being a problem.

What experiences have you all had of children sharing bedrooms and have you any tips on minimising disturbances? Thanks.

hello nutjob my two have shared for the past year now for the first week it was hard to get them to sleep at night excitment.now if one wakes up crying it hardly disturb the other one at all.Why not put a baby listener in there for a while so if one wakes you can get straight in there with min disturbance.

Nutjob - my two have shared room since for the past 3.5yrs (they are nearly 4 and nearly 6 now). I'm always amazed that they never disturb one another, though they have always been in together, so are used to it. I can't think of any tips. How old are they?

Thanks Jobey and Giggler. My two are 5 and 3 by the way. We are going to be moving house soon and dh says that if they get on sharing a bedroom we will keep them together, and use the third bedroom as a playroom/study until they get to an age where we have to split them (being a boy and girl, they are bound to get to an age where privacy becomes important!!).

Have actually found it quite nice so far, as when they wake up, instead of calling out to go downstairs, they just get up and play together in the room which gives me a few extra precious minutes in bed!!!!

We originally had only 2 bedrooms so they had to be in together, but we moved last year, and now have 3. But we've chosen to leave them together in bunks in the small room with their wardrobe and chest of drawers (no toys), and then the huge room has a spare double bed for visitors, all their toys on open shelving and crates, and loads of space to play. It works really well for us - they usually tidy up first thing in the morning, rather than last thing at night, when they are too tired. And there are no toy distractions at bedtime.

Is bedtime OK? We put ds2 down first, he falls asleep quickly, then put ds1 in with his light on to read. .. did go through a tricky phase when ds1 needed more sleep than ds2, but didn't want to go to bed earlier .. but it works well at the moment.

hi nutjob,sorry i havent got any advice as my children will soon be sharing a bedroom as well,theyre 5 and nearly 3 but we only have bunk beds so i wonder if anyone can tell me at what age is it safe to put them on the top bunk bed as i`m worried because ds moves an awful lot in his sleep,any advice would be great,thanks!!

So far so good with bedtime at the moment. Dd goes to bed first at 7pm, and ds stays up, watches the Simpsons, does colouring in and dot-to-dots until 8pm and by the time we creep in she is soundo. There was a problem at first when ds said dd's snoring was keeping him awake!!! - but he seems to have got used to it now.

Nutjob glad its working out O.K I remember sharing with my brother when we were little and we had real fun the spare room was our playroom too.My boys have to share as we have a baby girl too but even if we didn't have her I think I would also make them share.

My 2 boys-6 and 9 actually share a single bed at the moment. they have their own rooms but ds2 cant bear being alone (even in daytime-any ideas??) so they sleep in his room- ds1 actually likes the company too. I cant decide on bunk beds though as dd is younger and Im worried she would climb on them. Neither boy seems to disturb the other, ds1 goes to sleep much later than ds2. Even with ds1 there though, when ds2 wakes up in the night, he insists on coming in our bed. we are having a real crackdown on this and when we take him back crying, ds1 seems to wake up but cant remember in the morning!

Bunk beds are great - I agonised too - somewhere on Mumsnet I think! But we went ahead and got them 2 yrs ago when ds2 was 1.5 and ds1 was 3.5. We put ds1 straight in the top bunk, and it actually improved his sleeping, as he couldn't be bothered to get out of bed once he was in!

We've never had any problems with children climbing on them and falling off, or falling out of bed.

The one thing I didn't think about though is that it is a real pain changing the bedding - it's quite hard work. I wouldn't like to have a child in a top bunk who wet the bed a lot, and needed bedding changing in the middle of the night.

thanks for that giggler!! and i know what you mean about changing the top bed,i hate it!!i have to get on it to put the fitted sheet!!