My two older girls SUCK at sharing a bedroom. Like, it’s really bad.
They fight when they wake up, they brawl before bed, they bicker during quiet time. It has me wondering whether it would be better to separate them and put one with the baby, but I am not sure if that’s the solution either. I don’t want one to feel alienated and alone, but I also cannot stand the fighting.
Growing up, I never had to share a bedroom since I just had one brother and we each had our own quarters. I suppose that since we have three girls I harboured dreams of them whispering into the night through their bunk beds and braiding each other’s hair in the morning as they got ready for school. Ha! Haaaaaaa!!
Since they fight so much, I don’t know if it would be better to give them a bit of space from each other and put them in different rooms, or, if they need to learn to just suck it up and get along at all costs. I want them to have a lasting, meaningful friendship as they age, but I’m not sure how best to foster that. Would absence make their hearts grow fonder, or should they fight their way to sisterly love?
Do you insist that your kids share a bedroom, or do you think it’s healthy for them to have their own?
My kids have separate rooms. Partly because they have such different personalities and interests, and partly because I look after other people’s children in my home. My kids’ rooms are the only spaces in the house that are their own, so I protect that for them. Also, their bedrooms are very small. It would be difficult for them to share, for that reason alone, and I’m skeptical that anyone would get any sleep during the transition!
My sister & I shared a beedroom until I was 18 & she was 15. Like Tracey said, it goes in stages…there were times we were thick as theives & others when we couldn’t STAND even looking at each other.
I’m the older one & even though we did fight, NO ONE could hurt her. (only me!! Hee hee!!) It is still that way to this day. I have protected her many times, from when she went & got her ears peirced without Mom’s permission (I got mine done too so we both got yelled at) to the times when she has been in some REALLY bad relationships and I will continue doing that.
We are definitely closer now & I think its because we don’t live together (she’s in the west end of the GTA & I’m in the east end). Our children (her boy, my girl) act like they are siblings rather than cousins, so I think it all worked out in the end.
Mine share a bedroom – the space in our house dictates that… and they like it quite a bit, I think. They don’t bicker, but they also only use the space for sleep, and not so much for play/hanging out. (The room is too small for that.) But, they’re different sexes too… we’ll separate them eventually.
My sister and I shared our entire lives living together. I think we went through stages of ease, and others of fistacuffs, but we’re superclose now… dunno if that made a difference or not, but I think it did.
I LOATHE when my kids fight too… I hear you, lady. I’m not sure what the answer is either… oy. Good luck!!
I say separate rooms – I never forgave my sister for being placed in mine , they said I was jealous but I know it was for different reasons we fought til I moved out and only in the last 4 yrs have cultivated a good relationship. It would have been easier if we had been separated