Should Siblings Share a Bedroom?

Hi A.,

I think that it is better if they stay in their own rooms. If they were both girls/both boys, it would be different, but it sounds like they are on completely different schedules. Don't mess up a beautiful thing! What about transforming each room to have a play area? Could that work? Or maybe a space in the living room? Good luck!

Molly

Hi A.,

I recommend that your children have their own rooms. If one of them becomes sick or fussy, both will be awakened and you will have twice the calamity to deal with.

You probably already have a monitor in both rooms. When you mention "the whole other side of the house"....it's not like the Winchester Mystery House..right?

Sorry no one answered the first time....Blessing to you and your family and best wishes with your new business.

they are still babies basically so the fact they are different sexes doesn't matter at this point. I had a 3yr old and a 5yr old sharing a bedroom for a short time. You really won't have to worry about the different sexes not sharing a room for a while yet.

I also had a step-sister and step-brother who shared a room for quite a few years. In fact till they were 8 and 12. And there wasn't any problems.

Give it a try for a couple months and see how it goes. If it doesn't work out you can always switch them back. And as one other poster said ... your daughter may actually sleep better if she knows she's not alone in the night. But there's no harm in trying it out.

My 5 and 7 year old "share" a room. (they sleep together in her twin bed) My 7 year old is afraid to sleep alone!!! He also wakes up sometimes during the night. I find that when either one of them awakes, the other one will comfort the one who awoke back to sleep. (did I confuse you there??) Mine have now become inseperable! Maybe you should give it a try first and see how they fair. Don't move everything around, just take what you need for him to sleep in, his crib etc. If it doesn't work well then you will have an easier time moving him back to his room. Your daughter may even sleep better having her little brother in the room with her! Ya never know til you try!!! GOOD LUCK!!!! ALSO GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR NEW BUSINESS!!! Can you send me a message and give me more info. I am a Tupperware Consultant and have my client database, if you would like I can send out an e-mail to them telling them of yor business and myabe you will get some responses!! Afterall if us mom's don't stay together and support each other well who else will!!!

I'd follow the suggestion of the mother prior to me. Start with seeing how it goes BEFORE changing the other's room to a playroom. The other thing that I would be concerned about is when they start to know the difference between the sexes. It would work a lot longer for same sex siblings.

I don't have any advice, I'm just responding so I can find this thread again later. We are about to move into a smaller house so I am facing the same issue with our 2 girls.

What I can tell you from having had a playroom - if you can get them to share a room to sleep in, I bet they will love having all their toys in one room! (And I bet you will love it too - nothing better than having a nice, neat bedroom, and being able to simply shut the door on the disastrous playroom. =) I would give it a try for a few nights, and if they seem ok with it, make the switch!

But I'm curious what the other mamas have to say about siblings sharing rooms!

My first 2 children shared a bedroom for many years . My daughter was 3 1/2 or 4 when we moved our son age 1 1/2 or 2 out of our bedroom. They shared until this year when my daughter really wanted a space of her own. She was almost 11. I think it was a great thing for their relationship and they were a source of comfort to each other and slept well in sickness and health. we have a play room for most toys, and they had space in the bedroom for some personal stuff. Now my son who is almost 9 has been sharing a room with his almost 3 year old little sister and it's not working out so great. To big an age gap. He would like his room neater and she is messy. So we are working on moving him out and then she will share with her new baby sister in a few months. I've never had same sex sibblings shareing a room so I hope it works out and they will grow to share with each other. It worked out great with girl ,boy , no ownership problems or fights with toys and they do share alot of toy's like playmobile. So I say go for it ,I really like how it fosters a close friendship between sibblings. Sorry I missed your post the first time. I never saw it. Looks like you've got lots of responces now. Good luck.

I think that you should give it a try. My two oldest children are 3 years apart and one boy, one girl. We put them in the same room when they were 3 and 6, because we had a new baby. My son and daughter really enjoyed sharing a room and I think that they did sleep better because of the other being in the room. As long a they don't share a room when your daughter starts to be embarrassed about undressing and redressing in front of her brother your OK. Good Luck to you!

Sure they can share a bedroom if it works for you. Why not.

My girls have been sharing a room for a year now. They are 4 and 5 1/2. My older daughter has always been a great sleeper, while my younger daughter has not been. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about how it has gone. The pros (and largely the reason I opted to have them share a room) included my desire to promote closeness between them. In addition, I wanted to designate a play space for them to share some of the larger toys they had acquired - like play kitchen, doll houses, etc. I also wanted them to have to share space so that they would have more of an opportunity to work and play together. I didn't want them to always be able to retreat into their own space. Which leads me to some of the cons. It can be challenging when one or both needs some down/alone time (which we all do from time to time). Also, the sleep differences have not really gotten any better. My younger one does interrupt her sister's sleep quite a bit, waking her up earlier and keeping her up later than her past patterns were.
For a while we had our second room set up as the play room, which I really ended up not liking because they tended to just spread the toys further and further beyond that room. Also, it became harder to define personal property between them. Who's Polly Pocket was whose kind of thing. Now we are expecting our third child, and do not have any other options but to have a shared bedroom situation. While the toy room thing wasn't working for me in the form in which we had it set up, I do agree that having the bedroom be strictly for sleeping is a great idea!!! Now that I'm having another baby and our playroom will be a bedroom once again, I will have to reconfigure the playroom downstairs somehow. I am thinking I will get each girl her own toy chest to keep her "special" toys in to allow them a sense of ownership and individuality. But, as you have one of each, this issue probably won't be an issue at all. Also, we started the shared room at ages 3 and 4. Maybe if we had done it sooner, my girls would have acclimated their sleep requirements a little better. As far as when one is sick at night, oddly this doesn't seem to wake them. And often, we have the sick (flu sick)child sleep on the floor in our room anyway. If you have any other, more specific, questions about our experience, please feel free to message me. I wish you good luck.

My son & daughter shared a room when they were younger and it was great! Their room was very large so they had bunk beds and all of their toys in there, too.
If your son is a fairly sound sleeper and your daughter doesn't make too much noise when she wakes up, I don't see it being a problem. She may actually sleep better knowing she's not "alone."
And planning/decorating the playroom would be a really fun project for you and your daughter to work on together :)
Good luck!

My kids are 3 years apart and have shared a room from the beginning. It has its pros and cons. I say try it out and see how it goes before moving all the furniture. Keep in mind that most big transitions like that may take 2 weeks to settle back down. Maybe make the additional room a playroom so that their bedroom is just for sleeping!

Good luck!

T.
Founder
www.theparentpack.org