Do I NEED a bedroom?

[Lou2120]

Ok so I live in a 3 bedroom house and me and my husband have 3 children. 2 boys and 1 girl and age gaps of 4 and 5 years.

I'm now thinking should we give them all a room of their own each and me and my husband get a good quality sofa bed and just sleep downstairs and not have a bedroom?

The kids play in their rooms however we only sleep in our bedroom. I'd keep our wardrobes and clothes in the largest room still as it is. Has anyone ever done this?

I’ve done this. It’s a struggle in the long run. We got what we thought was a good quality bed - our focus was on one that was quick to fold in and out - but no sofa bed can compare to a real bed. It can definitely be worth it for a shorter time, ie when you can see the end. If I could make unilateral decisions I’d have simply screened off part of the living room to a bedroom with a real bed and/or in general used the space of the whole house differently/in an unorthodox way. But my husband is having none of that because he is a stick in the mud more conservative that way.

Personally I wouldn't, you need adult alone time and privacy etc. Why can't the boys share?

Are the bedrooms big enough that you could reconfigure walls to make a 4th room? I'd speak to a good architect or builder and see what they suggest.

Cab you convert the loft or build a ground floor extension to give you an extra bedroom?

That would be daft and such a faff every night. The children are fine sharing or place some sort of divider in the largest bedroom.

Forgot to say - our reasons were two older children who needed space to study and were suffering sharing a room, and a younger child who needed earlier bedtimes but was a bit old to share a room with us. With younger children I’d just make them share. This was a three year thing.

God no don’t do it. My room is my sanctuary.

The children of the same sex need to share.

I wouldn't give up my adult space. Especially when there are two of you.

What are the ages of the boys and girls? If the girl is in the middle it is a bit unfair making the boys share when the older might be needing space for homework etc. However a 4/5 year age gap between the boys should be fine for sharing.

Can the boys have the biggest room with a divider in between?

Any chance of splitting a room into two?

Any chance for extending the house?

Would you consider moving?

How long before eldest moves out?

Definitely not. Mine share, I have an area in the kitchen & an area in my room that can be used as study desks. You can also buy a desk bed/loft bed so each has privacy.

Not the answer you're looking for as I've never done it, but I would never have thought about doiy this

Depending on their ages (are they 11 or less?) I would stick the two closest in age in the same room. I'm assuming they have similar bedtimes?

I've done this, long time ago when the children were very small. My husband was doing three years re-training for a new career so we had little money, I was a SAHM as our eldest had some disabilities.

We bought a small place, the children had a room of their own and we had a bed sofa in the living room.
It works if you accept the limitations, and if the children are young, and if it's for a set amount of time. You also need to be very organised, I had a wardrobe/cupboard where the bedding fitting and every night I got everything out, made up the bed....every morning I carefully put it all away again and back to a sofa, just to have a normal living room.

I can't see it working long term and definitely not if the children were older/teenagers. But short-term, for a specific reason, it can be fine.

Could you get something like this in one of the rooms so two can share but still have their own space?

I wouldn't do this.

It means the living room is always occupied. So your teen can't ever stay up later, or whoever wakes earliest can't go downstairs.

At least with your bedroom, it means if youngest child wakes at 6am, one parent can go downstairs with them, whilst other rests. or if one adult is ill they can rest in own bed etc..

I would have the two sharing, and just give you room to the oldest to use for watching film, reading etc if the younger one is asleep already but they want space from downstairs

I wouldn't if you can avoid it. There are lots of things that could be annoying:

• one of you wants a lie-in
• one of you is ill and needs to rest during the day
• older child wants to stay up to watch a film or have quality time with one parent
• one of the kids wants a drink in the middle of the night
• you get up earlier than teenage kid, but need to get your stuff from their room
• intimacy.... you don't really have a private space!

Basically, it's not too bad in the short term, but annoying circumstances will come up, so kids sharing might make more sense. Besides, if you have two large-ish age gaps, the younger two will be able to have a room each when they are entering teenage years and need a bit more space.