Siblings Sharing a Room?? - Kalamazoo,MI

My children are 20 months apart - now almost 3 and 14 months, and they share a room. They HAVE to because we only have two bedrooms, but If we had three, I would still keep them together.

For the most part, they sleep through each others noise - which is remarkable because my daughter gets up and hollers in the night, and my son hollers when he goes to bed (when my daughter is already asleep) - but they are used to it, and just keep on sleeping.

I like having them together. i think it helps them feel close. The other night, my daughter was crying and my son came out and told me she was crying. When I went in to get her, he was in her crib with her, singing to her, and had given her a stuffed toy.

I like the idea that they are together to keep each other company and take care of each other.

I kinda believe that if they share a room in the beginning for a while it actually helps them to bond and also how to deal with others etc. So I'm all for that. When they get older they might want their own space which would be fine also

My two girls are three years apart and they shared a room for a couple years until the older one decided that she wanted her own room. The other room we used as a playroom. I loved having a separate room to play in. I think they were maybe 4 and 7 when we put them together.

We have 4 bedrooms. My hubby & I have one, our older daughter has one, the twins share a 3rd and the 4th is the girls' play room. There's nothing wrong with having the kids share a room until they get old enough for it to matter.

My kids 3.5 and 15 months have seperate rooms. But, we have a playroom also. I agree with you that it is easier to confine the toys to one room, but if they're sharing a room you may miss out on some sleep or time with just one of them. Mine go to bed at the same time, but my oldest gets up an hour to 1 1/2 hours before my younger one. I use that time to get things done around the house and give my oldest one on one time. You could have the baby's room also be a playroom. Just get plenty of storage for the toys.

We have a 4 bedroom house and put our two boys (they are 3 yrs apart) in a room together so we could use one extra room for an office because my husband hates living rooms turned into offices. The other room was left as a spare room but now that we are expecting a girl, that will be her room. It works out well for the boys to share and your oldest is young enough, so it shouldn't really be a huge transition for him.

We put our boys in seperate rooms at first and when my youngest was about 2 he wanted to be with his brother so we put them in the same room and used the 3rd bedroom as a playroom. It stayed that way until last year when I had #3 and now the playroom no longer exists. It was nice to have just beds and dressers in there room now they have the biggest room and all their toys are in there but it is still packed. I say let them share until they want their own rooms.

Everyone keeps commenting on issues with naps if the kiddos share a room... maybe we are just really blessed as all of our kids sleep through just about anything, including the night very young.
My youngest two (16 mo boy & 4 mo girl) share a room and have no problem. DS only wakes up if DD starts really crying hard- he's such a little nurturer, he has to see what's wrong and try to calm her down. Once I got in there and he'd pulled his stool over & was patting her little head to calm her down!
She sleeps right through all the noise the boys make (older DS is 6yo).
I do like a central spot for the toys too. As someone said, then you don't have the issue of this is mine! We just keep all the toys my younger son can play with in our sunroom (slightly separated from the living room & we can close it off), and the toys that aren't safe for him- such as tiny legos- in my older son's room.
The little ones will be together at least till they're potty-trained and my oldest learns to sleep without the light on b/c my little boy only sleeps in the dark.

we JUST moved my 2 older kiddos (2.5 and not quite 4) into one bedroom so that our new baby can have a separate room once I return to work from maternity leave. I am due in a month. It is tough to have kids share a room if they are on different nap schedules -- just as a warning. My sister in law did it (her kids are 22 mos apart and have shared a room since the little one was about 4 mos) -- the kids are now 5 and 3.5. They would manipulate one of the kids to get them on the same schedule otherwise no one would ever nap. It is really tough when one is an infant with a different naptime, 2 naps or different bedtime. If you don't mind doing a little playing, it is a great idea! My sister in law did the same thing and all of the toys are confined to the "PLAYROOM" :) or other bedroom. She loves it!

My two girls share a room. They are almost 8 and almost 11. I do have an additional bedroom that I could use for one of them but they actually like being together. Naps were never a problem as I could always put one in my bedroom if I needed. They both quickly learned how to get in and out of the room quietly if the other were sleeping.

I have no plans to split them up at this point.

I have 2 boys (3 years old and 8 months old). Currently the 8 month old sleeps in our room. Like you, I plan on moving him in with his older brother once he is able to sleep through the night. Space is very limited and so that's our situation. I do like a separate play area for play and relaxing but unfortunately again our play area and family room is confined into one big area so I can't really do that.

My girls are 2.5 years apart and they currently share a bedroom. We kept the youngest in our room until she was a year old. So far it works like a charm! :)

We have sort of a strange bedroom set up, so we have like 2.5 bedrooms. The .5 is the room that the stairs go into, so it doesn't have it's own door. It's more than big enough to use as a bedroom. When the girls get older and want their own space, we'll give one of them our bedroom and use the .5 bedroom for us.

it would depend on the sex of babies/kids.
if i were having another girl- prolly would make them share- so we could use the other room as a play room.

but if it were a boy-- id seperate for sure.

My 2 boys still share a room and they are 14 and 16. We have a "bedroom" that is used for building legos, another bedroom is used as a study.

Our girls share a room, they are 2.5 years different in age. I moved baby in at 4 months old. We only have 2 rooms, so it wasn't an option to keep them separate, however I wouldn't have dared try it otherwise because it would've seemed an impossibility to do naps and bedtime. But I"m here to tell you it does work. You'll probably want to stagger their nap times and even bedtimes at first so they get used to sleeping in the same room. Also make the room really dark and use some form of white noise (we have a box fan) to keep it a quiet sleeping area. It is nice to have the toys in one room, we use the basement, and the clothes and beds in the other. The only tough thing again is nap times, but its certainly possible. My girls enjoy sharing the room now and even after we move and have more rooms they will probably stay together until they wish to have their own spaces. I'd say start as soon as you can to do the room sharing thing, my friend is trying to do this with a 4 and 6 year old, and they have a hard time settling down at night due to lots of talking and giggling. ;)

Best wishes!

I can see where both of you are coming from. I think it matters more to have your own room when you're older. I'd say try it when the time comes and see what happens - if it works, great. If not, no big deal.

I would give them separate rooms. As for the toys, store them in the closets or cabinets with curtains to create separation.

We have six kids--three girls, three boys. We have them in two bedrooms. Currently the two youngest (4 and almost 18 mos) sleep with my husband and I. The 4 year old is starting to venture into the girls' room for nap times and will start out the night in there before coming into us. All three boys are sequestered happily in one room. We have four bedrooms in our house; the fourth is the Nursery. The nursery is basically a playroom, but we call it that because my oldest daughter saw a movie portraying Victorian life and fell in love with the term. lol

They're happy. They love being able to take over the playroom, and it helps because most of the toys are in there and can be jointly played with, instead of having any "these are MY toys get out" issues.

There are, of course, still toys strewn about the other living spaces. Ah, well

My oldest (boy) told me the other day that he loves having his brothers in the room with him. He said the youngest brother (7) woke up from a nightmare but he didn't have to come to me, because he was able to settle him. Love that! :)

I can honestly say that the toys were an issue to me. I have a house rule that is "Toys that are in the living room go to time out for being out of the bedroom". Each child keeps their toys int heir room on shelves. It works because as your kids get older the older child won't be able to play with age appropriate toys due to them being a choke hazard for the younger child. Until age 3 anything that will go through a toilet paper poll is an out of reach item. Having their own rooms that are age appropriate for them is important as they age. Right now having every thing in one room might be handier but I still would do separate rooms my self.

Remember tho that 2 kids have different 'schedules'. When one wants to play, the other might need relaxation time. I have 3 kids and they ultimately had their own rooms. But they did share in their younger years.

If one is a cleanliness freak and the other isn't, there isn't an issue. I say separate them later. Just remember that they will debate over whose toys are whose.

There are some advantages to having separate bedrooms. The biggest issue for us always was at bed time or nap time because if one was crying they sometimes woke the other up. Or if one was sick in the night the other usually woke up too.

Good luck!

I never had my own space growing up and that was one thing I wanted to be able to give my kids. We do have room for a play area but my best friend just has good closet organizers and her boys keep their stuff in their rooms. They can still relax and play in the same rooms. Sleep time is another factor because they are not always going to be on the same schedule...or if one wakes up the other will probably wake up.

My girls are 16 months apart and share a room. We considered separating them when we upgraded from crib and toddler bed, but our house is small and one of the bedrooms is used as an office. Having that second bedroom to contain toys would be fantastic. We ultimately went with bunk beds to maximize space, and the girls love sharing (4 1/2 and 6 on Friday). I think your idea is sound.

My boys are thirteen months apart and have shared a room since the youngest was born. They are now ages 15 and 17 and still share a room. They actually want to share the room, lol! At one point my oldest moved into a very nice finished room in the basement, but soon moved back in with his brother by choice. We just use the room in the basement now as a second family room.

Most young kids hate sleeping alone so I'd always opt for sharing a bedroom, no matter what sex they are. When they are tweens they can split up if they prefer that. It's less for you to clean too if there's a designated playroom.