Do your children share a room (even if they don't have to)?

[oliveoil]

dd1 is nearly 4, dd2 is 2 this month and at the moment they have their own rooms.

However, we are hoping to move house soon (prays) and I am thinking of them sharing so that we have a spare room again.

Also, the 3rd bedroom is always small and once dd2 is out of her cot, will be cramped.

Will they wake each other up and fight all the time or can I envisage a Waltons-esque set up?

My ds and dd are going to share soon so that I can put the baby into a room on it's own whilst it's small. We're getting bunk beds.
It's quite a small room so I won't be keeping many of their toys in there so they'll have to play downstairs. At the moment they get on quite well - I'm more worried about ds waking up dd (he gets nightmares a lot).

ds is 6 and dd is 3.

soon I hope!! We've got a 3 bed house but ds's bedrooms are tiny (used to be a 2 bed and they've divided one into 2 small cells for the boys...). Anyway, ds1 wants bunk beds and we've figured out that the Argos shorty bunk bed will just about fit into his room, so we're getting it next week! Ds2 is ready to go into a bed and although ds1's child's bed will fit into his room, I'm hoping he ends up in the bottom bunk so we've got a spare room for whenever dp and I are ill (all the time...) and need to sleep on our own etc.etc.

We both really miss having the luxury of a spare room, so although ds2's room is tiny, it'll still be nice to be able to use it for other stuff.

We've done dummy runs of them sharing a room at their grandma's and on holiday and it went really well - fair bit of chatting at bed time but both asleep within half an hour, and then both waking up at the usual time in the morning - so I'm going with the Waltons visions!

i'd like mine to share a room as it would give us a spare room. dd is still in with us (in our bed, i find the cot very useful for the ironing....) & her room-to-be is full of her clothes. ds is so lovely with her, sings to her to calm her down & stuff (he's 3.5 years older), i think they'd have a great time sharing.

Only problem is that dd1 sleeps very well, odd wail in the night, but generally in bed at 7pm, up at 7am.

dd2 is a pita! Wails, crys, screeches etc can be found most nights in our bed so will have to sort her sleeping out first.

I have seen some v cute matching pink (!!) beds in the catalogue and want them.

Mine do. But only b/c they have to.

yep dds 6 and 4 share. we've actually got 4 rooms so we have a spare - which is the most civlised and tidy room in the house and the little room is a study and ironing/general junk room. I dread them asking for their own rooms cos I don;t want to surrender either of the other two, but they show no signs at all of wanting to. They can't actually sleep without each other - when we went on holiday they could have had seperate rooms but chose to share - in a double bed too - rather than sleep apart. The main problem is not actually fighting with each other - it's one of them playing up and fighting with us. If that happens and the other one wants to go to sleep we just tell them to get in our bed and move them later. that often results in howls of "but I can't sleep without her" from the one who's playing up!

ds2 and ds3 do. We moved ds3 in about a month or so ago. DS3's room is smalland he'd started being a pain at bed time. Works really well- they both love it- ds2 is 4 ds3 19 months

mine are even sharing a bed

Mine sleep together because they have to. There is no fighting or silly business, partly because DD goes to bed first & wakes up later. DS goes up later & wakes up earlier. Also they have no toys or playthings in their bedroom, which may help.

My brother's sons share a room and have bunk beds and he says he goes in sometimes and they are both on the bottom bunk snuggled up, how cute is that??!!

At what age are they 'allowed' bunk beds?

mine share from choice, though we have enough bedrooms for one each. dd1 and dd2 did til recently they're 6 and 4, and they had bunk beds from age nearly 4 and 2. Now dd2 (4) and dd3 (2) share, and dd1 is on her own. but quite often they all three share for the pleasure of it. If they riot or chat too much we separate them for a night or two. I think it helps them be close to each other, it's lovely to hear them playing and chatting away, or reading to their little sister in bed.

Ours have always shared. Dd1 got her own bedroom aged 8, but often sneaks into ds and dd2's bedroom to sleep in the spare bunk there.

I secretly rather love it when they're all in together it's so cosy. Dd2 (2.5) does tend to wake the others up once she's up in the morning she yells at ds until he responds, or failing that chucks toys up at him on the top bunk! but in term-time we need to make an early start anyway, so it's never been a problem. And they do entertain and look after each other. Waking each other up at night has never been a problem dd2 is a bit of a tantrum merchant and could stage a full-scale 20-minute screamer in her cot and ds wouldn't even twitch. IME they sleep more soundly once they've got used to a certain level of background noise from siblings. I tend to find that those visiting children who have trouble sleeping are the ones who've been used to their own blacked-out silent bedrooms in the style of SWMNBN.

If you've got normal health-and-safety-compliant bunks with proper rails etc I think a sensible 4yo would be okay on the top one. We have non-sensible (but beautiful) cast-iron Victorian bunk beds with no safety rails at all. Ds has just moved to the top bunk aged 7 but I won't let visiting children sleep up there.

dd1 can sleep through a drill and napped for 2 hours once when all the tiles were chipped off the bathroom next to her room.

dd2 will wake up at a floorboard creak (as I found out last night).

You can test out how sensible your 4yo is on a top bunk. Ours has safety rails, it's very sturdy, and both dd1 and dd2 have been fine there aged 3-4. They are warned to NEVER bounce on it. ever. Instead I let them bounce on my bed if they feel the need.

They have been fine climbing out of it even in the middle of the night.

dd1 has never ever EVER got out of bed, she just goes to sleep and that is it.

I am in for a rude awakening with dd2 I fear as payback for me being so smug for years!

Anyway, have to go and do some work now, will be back after.

xx

You may find she becomes less noise-sensitive once she gets used so the background noise from another sleeping child.

My ds (6) and dd (3) have shared for two years. It has been great and has really helped their relationship - if they have the option (when we are someone else's house) of sleeping apart they never want to. dd will get into ds's bed if she is scared in the night and I sometimes find them sleeping together in the mornings.

Our main problem with it is that dd is treally badly behaved when we have other children staying in that room too so ds can never have friends to sleep opver atm (he really wants to).

That said, in a year or so when ds is at juniors I am going to try and seperate them either by having our loft done or moving. I think by then ds will want his own space.

My dds - (10,7) - have always shared beacause they have to. Only problem is that on the odd occasion when dd2 is on her own, she hates it and can't get to sleep! If they annoy each other at reading time (before sleep), dd2 goes into our room to read aloud.

Sleepovers aren't a problem as the child not having friends over, sleeps in a sleeping bag on the floor in our room and gets extra attention from me and dh.

I think it can be more difficult to put them together after they've been apart. I know a couple of friends who have tried it and because they can resort to using the extra room again, they usually do. You've got to expect a few niggles.