kids sharing a room?

[luvmyfam444]

do you have kiddos sharing a room? How many? Do you plan to always let them share?

I was reading a interesting article in a local magazine about kids sharing a room - about it being a postive thing & looking at the rest of life many people will always be sharing - from college roomate to spouse.

It also talked about it being a fairly new( in the last 60 yrs) American thing for kids to have their own rooms (I'm talking about same sex here)...

I'd like to read your thoughts on why/whynot to let same sex kids share a bedroom & if you think 2 is the limit...

 

[Barb D]

None of my kids share rooms. DD15 and DD8 are far enough apart in age and temperament that I didn't want them to. DH and I turned the basement family room of our 3br rancher into a master bedroom so that each of the three kids could have his/her own room.

My sister has 10 kids in a 5 bedroom house, and there are 2 or 3 kids in each room.

 

[Kath2003]

I shared a room from age 5-8 with my sister. I enjoyed it. At 8 I moved into the tiny bedroom to have my own room. My younger sister, then 3, shared with my other sister. When I was 13 I moved into the larger room and my youngest sister got that - so we all shared a room for a period of time with one other sibling. I think it taught us to share and respect other people's space, but I don't think it's the only way to teach this. If I had kids, I'd probably make them share for a period of time - it's good fun!

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

My 2 boys ages 6 and 3 share a room. For now our boys like sharing a room and wouldn't not share even if they had that option. Youngest ds had always shared a room with 5-6 people before joining our family, so he would have been lost on his own. Older ds just enjoys having his brother around.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

DS10 and DS8 have been sharing a room since DS8 was 1. Now they share the bonus room as their bedroom. This in no way has helped them learn to share other things (with each other-other kids are fine.). They are very competitive and keep track of everything the other kid gets...it is very tiring. If we ever move and can have an extra bedroom, they will have their own room.

 

[amyhughes]

Our boys share a room, and though some nights I want to pull my hair out getting them calmed down and asleep, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

We are thinking short bunk beds for Christmas, as my eldest is pulling in on 6 and it would free up more space in their room.

 

[Doe]

My oldest two, 16 &17, have their own rooms. The youngest two, 12 & 13, share. They really want their own room though! I would say in the last 6 months they really have started wanting their own space. If my son moves out after graduating in June the 13 year old has called dibs on his room. They've got the paint chip samples and room designs already going on in their "room design" notebook! I will say if my husband gets his way that room will turn into an office. I see a coin toss happening.
As far as 2 being the limit...I think it depends on the age. My 3 girls shared a room for about 3 years when they were little and it wasn't a problem. Make the three of them share a room now? That would be nothing but drama problems.

 

[binny]

my girls share a room. They are 10 and 9 and when we moved here 2 years ago I said "you can each have your room" they said " WHY?????"

So until they dont want to they will continue to share a room. They share everything else anyway.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

My older two shared a room at times when they were younger, even when we had a 3br. They liked having a playroom. We did only have a 2br at one point, because the military says they can share a room even if they are same sex, up until age 6.

Right now, everyone has their own rooms, and I can't imagine making any of them share. The baby and DS are 8.5 years apart. Not everyone sleeps in their own room every night- I have no problem with sleepovers between DS and DD, even on school nights. But I do think they all need their own personal space.

 

[aprilgail2]

I only have one child and I have 6 bedrooms in the house (I use one for a office / library and the 2 spare bedrooms upstairs are never used for anything) so there is no need for anyone to share anything. I grew up in my own room and I know I cherished my own space. If I had more than one I would not make them share unless there was no possible way that I could make another bedroom out of a room.

 

[HelenePA]

Right now there are 3 bedrooms for the kids to pick from.... Oddly enough they almost always wind up in the same room. The one room has bunkbeds... they usually all wind up in there.. I'm thinking of putting a single bed in there too...I'm sure if I had to MAKE them all share one room they'd hate it.. I always said I had strange kids...

 

[Keli]

I have four sisters and three brothers. We always shared rooms.
I don't think it taught us to share our stuff so much, that was taught to us by our parents as a principal we lived by, not by the fact that our stuff was in the same room.
We changed it up a bit, I shared a room with different sisters at different times but I will tell you that my favorite time was when three of my sisters and I all shared the same giant room.
We were set up with two girls to a bedroom with two bedrooms side by side. We talked our parents into knocking the wall out between the two rooms and creating one large bedroom. Then we put our heads together and created a decorating scheme that we all liked and had what we considered a perfect bedroom.
The camaraderie between us all was special and I would have kept that bedroom situation forever (I think my sisters felt the same way) except we moved to a new house and the way the bedrooms were configured it was impossible to have one large bedroom for the girls.

Personally, I only had one child so she always had her own bedroom. If we'd have had two children of the same sex I know I would have put them in the same bedroom.

 

[Pikester]

I shared a room with my younger sister until I was 16 and she was 12. There were days that I LOVED it and days when I HATED it. She was a slob and I liked things to be tidy. She was always gettting into my stuff and that didn't stop when we finally got seperate rooms. But, it was nice to have someone to talk and fool around with or to have someone there when I got scared or had a bad dream.

Just wanted to add that I have two sons and they do not share a room. I had always wanted my own room when I was little so I made sure that when we purchased a house that we had the room to give them their own.

 

[luvmy3]

DS7 and DS4 have shared a room since the younger was born. We just got them bunk beds last year and they love them and it freed up alot of play space for them.
Right now they have no problem with sharing the room (toys are another story ) but I know some day they will want their own space. We have a 4 bedroom house, but dh uses one for his office (which he needs) so I don't know what we will do when the boys are older.

 

[wowsmom]

I shared a room with my sister(s) until I was about 12. When I was really young, there were 3 of us in the room (4 bedroom house - one for my parents, one for my brother, one for the two oldest sisters, one for the other 3 girls). Then my parents built a bedroom in the basement for my brother, so the oldest sister got her own room, 2nd and 3rd born shared and I shared with my sister just older than me. I don't remember too much about it except that I would sometimes fight with my sister and throw her Barbie down the laundry chute.

We moved to a new house when I was 9 and everybody got their own room - except me and the sister just older, who still had to share. For the next 3 years (until oldest sister went off to college), sharing was not a happy experience. Sister used to yell at me for being messy but worse, she used to make fun of me when I would change my clothes. I started getting dressed in the closet so she wouldn't be able to see me. Not a fun memory...

Anyway, I have 2 boys and they have always had their own rooms - except for one summer for about 3 weeks when we redid one of the rooms. I like that they each have their own space to go to, if they want to "get away" from their sibling for a while.

 

[C.Ann]

We shared when I was a kid.. DD only has one child so there's no need to share..

 

[laughinplace199]

We have 3 kids, 1 DD and 2 DS's. We have a 3 BR house, so the boys have to share. They're little now, 7 and 1, so there haven't been any issues with sharing as of yet. Even if there are issues down the road, they'll just have to work them out since there's nowhere else to go.

 

[MushyMushy]

My kids are opposite sex and they shared a room for quite a while. They got along beautifully when they shared a room. At one point when DS was 9/10 and DD was 4/5 we moved into a house with 4 bedrooms -- DD was so excited to have her own room, but not to sleep in. She insisted on bunking in her brother's room.

It's strange, but when we finally did make her stay in her own room, they started fighting like cats and dogs and haven't gotten along since. I don't know if there's a connection to the sharing bedroom thing, but it seemed that way.

 

[Freyja]

My two oldest (boy and girl) shared a room when they were really young. Oldest and middle DD shared a room for 2 years when they were 2 and 7 years old. Right now everyone has their own room, except baby Jökull, who shares with us. We plan on making 2 rooms in the garage

 

[Ephany]

I shared a bedroom when I was younger with my sister and hated it. Of course I went from having my own room to having to share after my baby brother was born; I was used to having my own space. DH also shared with his brothers and didn't mind at all, so we have different takes on it.

It's not an issue now, we only only have DD. If we ever had another baby, we'd convert the office to a bedroom for DD and use her bedroom now for the baby since her room is right next to ours upstairs. I wouldn't make her share because there'd be at least a 7 year age difference between them and because I was so miserable sharing a room when I was younger.