Most of you know, we are in a temporary house right now waiting for our new house remodel to be finished. This particular house is a 3 bedroom, our previous house was a 5 bedroom, so we downsized A LOT! My husband and I decided the kids would share a bedroom because we really needed an office since we often work from home. Liam and Nora are 19 months apart, so we thought this could be an interesting trial! And if we hated it, we could just forfeit our office. So far, WE LOVE IT! I wanted to share my personal pros and cons as pertains to my situation.
Keep in mind, my kids are a boy (3) and a girl (17 months), 19 months apart in age.
Pros:
- Sharing and learning to share: I love that they are learning to naturally “share their space” through this experience. I think sharing a bedroom with someone, no matter the age is a very intimate / cozy experience and if you learn to coincide in a space together, that can teach you a lot about life going forward.
- Night terrors/ Afraid of the Dark: We were having this situation with Liam in our previous house. Every night he ended up in our room by midnight. I watched him on the monitor one night to try to figure out what was going on and this is what I discovered: He woke up panicked, got out of his bed and paced the room. Looked in his closet, in his bathroom, behind his bed, than ran out of the room crying. This tells me he was either having bad dreams, or he’s just plain afraid of the dark. I was the same way as a child! (And still am!) Since sharing a room with Nora the past month in this house, this has subsided! I think he feels safer having “someone” in the room with him. Even if its his baby sister.
- Playful conversations: I LOVE (when timing is okay) hearing them chat before bed. It really is the sweetest thing. As long as its not for too long, I love it. But for reals, sometimes I have to remind them multiple times to go to bed. (Will tell you more in the cons)
- Less rooms to clean: This pretty much speaks for itself! One room to vacuum, one room to dust, one room to put things away, one diaper pail to empty.
- Same bedtimes: Since Liam and Nora are close in age, it’s been a pretty easy transition as far as bedtimes. They have the same nap and bedtimes.
- Free’s up a room in your house: In our case- the office.
- BONDING: Need I say more???
Cons:
- Mornings: Liam is an early riser, Nora is not. Liam gets up around 6am every morning and hes not a quiet kid. He comes out of his room, leaves the door open, which wakes Nora up, and so do our dogs once they hear Liam up. This is probably my BIGGEST con. Liam used to come out of his room before, get a snack on his own, then climb in bed with us to cuddle for a bit. Now, since Nora wakes up to Liam, it forces me to have to get up way earlier, or listen to her wine on the monitor. In Nora’s old room, she would literally sleep or chill in her crib quietly until 9am if we let her!
- Keeping each-other awake during naptime: You know those times with you have a full day, and you NEED the kids to nap ON TIME and wake up ON TIME??? Well, this doesn’t always happen with a shared room circumstance. It can get pretty frustrating reminding (or yelling at) the kids to GO. TO. SLEEP when they are having a cute chat instead of closing their eyes for Mama. Also, one often wakes up before the other, cutting the other kid short of sleep when they could of slept longer. Grrr. One tip I will share: I started putting Nora to bed about 20 minutes before Liam, that way she was sleeping when I put Liam to bed, and I didn’t have to deal with the chatting! Liam loves being “quiet” for his sissy and sneaking in his bed when it’s time. Unless I can tell they are both pretty tired from the day, then they’ll be put down at the same time!
- Germ spread: We haven’t run into this yet, but I can imagine if the flu hit, I would be hesitant for them to sleep in the same room together
- Decorating: I do miss Nora’s boho girly room! I kept their pallet monochrome with some pops of green for now.
Please drop any additional thoughts below! ❤
Mrs Minty 