views/experiences of siblings sharing the same room....

[cookiemonstress]

Would be really interested in views/experiences on siblings sharing the same room. Have 2 dd, 3y and 18 m who currently have their own room (1 room tiny). But am contemplating having them share a room. This is partly for selfish reasons, i.e. containing the mess to only one room. They get on very well and toys and books are starting to become a lot more communal. DD1 tends to wake first and goes and sits in DD2 cot and they have similar bed times but it's currently chaos as everthing gets strewn about from both rooms. We were planning on doing up their rooms at the end of the yr because we never got our act together in terms of doing the traditional nursery thing and DD2 is currently sleeping in more of an office (cue guilt).

Should I or crazy to even contemplate?

My twin girls (2.9) have always shared a room and its worked well. I think they'd be heartbroken to be split up now and its amazing what one can sleep through whilst the other is singing loudly/crying etc..

If you need the space and they get on well I'd put them in together. We are renting a 3 bed house and need the 3rd room for storage/study.

My DDs (4 and 2) have shared since DD2 moved out of our room at 6 months. They love it and never disturb each other (it helps that DD1 is a very deep sleeper). It makes nighttime routine much easier and definitely helps re. restricting the mess, as you mention. Also helps them to learn how to share!

Will move them into bunk beds as soon as they are old enough. Even if we had an enourmous house with lots of bedrooms, I think I would keep them sharing a bedroom. I think it's nice and comforting for a child to have someone else sleeping in the same room.

My kids share a room on Friday and Saturday nights when they want too but it wouldn't work full time.

They are boy - 7
girl - 4

great. go for it. they love it. we have stacks of bedrooms and my ds1 moved into dd1s room when he was 3 for 18 months and only moved back into his own when ds2 showed up and shared with him. They are now 7 and 4 and still happily sharing. they like the company. DS1 has announced he wants his own room when he is 10 - fine

I shared with my brother for years as we lived in a two-bed flat. It was fine. We bickered LOADS about space and were always coming up with stupid schemes like dividing the room exactly in half with masking tape and imposing heavy forfeits for infringing the borders; also, I was a terrible insomniac/nightmare sufferer, while he slept like a log, so he always complained about me having the light on late at night. But we also had many happy times playing together, making stuff, making it our space - it was a safe place to bicker about pointless stuff, I guess. And when I woke up in the night freaking out about something, it was very comforting to know that he was snoring away on the other side of the room.

My two DSs (5 and nearly 3) share a room, have done for about a year and it's worked out really well.

They rarely keep each other awake now (although it did take a while to settle DS2 into his bunk bed) and sometimes even amuse themselves in their room in a morning instead of coming in to our room.

I think we'll just continue doing the same until one or both of them starts to complain about the lack of their own space (hopefully not for a few years yet...)

Ds (nearly 6) and dd (nearly 4) have been sharing a room for 5 months now, since we moved back to Italy.
It's going very well, they have the same bedtime and wake up more or less at the same time (ds used to wake up earlier than dd, he is better now, and we also instructed him not to wake her up). They like to be together. They've always played together a lot, but I noticed that since sharing the room, dd has less time/space to dedicate to her own games, as ds is always involving her in his games. (mind you when in England he was at primary and she spent two days at home without him, when she could do what she pleased, while now they are both at nursery school full time)

My DSs (4 and 5) share and it works really well. They like the company and will often sit in bed and chat/look at books together when they wake up rather than getting up straight away. This is VERY much appreciated by me at weekends. The younger one does sometimes keep the older one awake at bedtime but it's not a huge problem. They've been offered separate rooms on holiday a couple of times but always choose to stay together.

brilliant, thanks for so much encouraging feedback. Am about to attempt a temporary change about to at least trial it and see how we go. DD1 is very up for the idea and keeps suggesting that dd2 sleeps in her bed too!

Let me know how it goes. My DDs are 18 mo apart too, younger nearly 3. Have been contemplating it for ages but DH not keen.

Our DS (4 and 2) have shared a room since we moved DS2 out of our room, at 6 months. They love it and would hate to be separated, although of course they argue sometimes. What surprised me most is that neither of them ever seems to wake up if the other is crying for some reason in the middle of the night. Even in the mornings, our 4-year-old teenager lol sleeps a lot longer than his little brother - even the crying for milk doesn't usually wake him up.

We plan to give them their own rooms when they're a bit older, but hopefully not for a good few years yet - I like that they have each other's company.

Ds1 & ds2 share a room. They're 16 and 19 now and I would say that it's only in the last couple of years that it's become a problem. Tis a bit tough though as there's no other choice. ds2 will probably be off to uni in a year so that will offer a little relief!

my dds have always shared a room, now 11 and 9. No problems. Of course you're not crazy.

However, a lot of people who have an option of using another room often complain that it just didn't work when the two were put in together. I think they tend to move at the first whiff of discord just because they can.

2 of my dd's share a room...my 18mth old and my 3 year old and it's absolutely fine! They love it and it's really sweet to hear them chatting in the morning. I'm soon going to be moving my 5 year old dd in there as well as she feels left out and thankfully the room is large!

I plan to move my son in with my daughter over the summer. I think they need to get used to being in shared space for a few years

Dd and ds shared from when he was 2 and she 5 until he turned 6 and she 9/10; then she started needing a bit more privacy. But it was a tiny room and still worked really well.