How many of you shared a room growing up? I did on and off with my sisters. We would debate over who should get their own room at any particular time, and state our cases to my parents with elaborate drawings and they would play jury. I’m pretty sure we got this from an episode of Full House and that it was more of a challenge than based on any real need for solitude–until high school of course. I have really fond memories of sharing a room with my sister and campouts with both of my sisters in our rooms. I can recall sleeping in uncomfortable positions and sometimes on the floor of a homemade pillow fort all for the sake of hanging out with my sisters for a few more hours, and those are great memories.

Since we started out co-sleeping with our kids, it was a very natural move to put them in the same room. From the time of our recent move we bought a queen mattress set and put them both in one bed. They were very used to napping in the same room and sometimes on our bigger bed, so it has worked out great. Shortly after we moved I also weaned Summer so having her older sister Gemma in the same room helped as a great distraction. Typically, after the girls do bath time/bed time routine, we tuck them in and they talk and giggle for about 30 minutes and then finally it becomes silent and they just drift off. I think sharing a new room in a new home really helped the girls with the move transition. With everything being unfamiliar, at least they had each other to talk to and snuggle with while drifting off to sleep.

The next stage of room sharing came when Gemma recently started transitional kindergarten. At this point, Summer had become much bigger and started to bug Gemma as she drifted off to sleep quickly from a busy day at school. The solution was to move Summer to a toddler bed nearby. This has worked out great and gives the girls some extra space and better sleep. They still sleep together on weekends occasionally and they play often on the queen bed, but just having the secondary toddler bed is very helpful and not space consuming.

Summer is less wakeful these days during the night, but occasionally does call out for me when feeling scared or her latest “change my diaper” as she has begun potty training. Gemma is so in deep sleep that she usually doesn’t wake up during this time, and if she does she goes back to sleep within minutes. Overall the girls are sleeping very well in the same room, and I don’t suspect that they are scared of the dark because they have one another. This is a huge plus because I love that we are getting good sleep and that they are not lying scared in their beds.

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Other added benefits of sharing a room are camaraderie and working together. Since the girls often play in their room together and have to share their space and most of their toys within that space, it has helped to allow them to work together to solve problems of who plays with what, who gets dressed first, who can find something the other needs etc. It is really sweet when this happens spontaneously and we don’t have to intervene too much. Don’t get me wrong — there is fighting and arguing often, but there are also really sweet moments where they are playing harmoniously. I like that they are able to practice conflict resolution and I see it transfer to their other social relationships.

Other added benefits for our home are having the space to provide a guest room and storage of miscellaneous items within the guest room. I know at some point the girls will want their own rooms, but the benefits right now have swayed our vote to keeping them in the same room. I hope they will have memories like I do of my sisters and our room sharing experiences.

Do your kids share a room or do you plan to have them share?