When siblings share a room

My brother and I grew up with the luxury of always having our own room, our own space. The luxury grew to be an entire story of the house for us, our own bathroom and living area. Was that really a luxury?

When I thought about what I would want for my children one day, sleeping arrangements never crossed my mind. It was just a given that they would have their own room and when my two girls were here, that's what they had for a year and a half.

When my second daughter was about 18 months old we started to have some major sleeping problems. What was once a great sleeper, was no longer. My husband and I thought, what if we put them together?

So we moved her cot into our eldests room and soon enough our toddler was sleeping soundly. It wasn't without a battle. She would still cry and keep our eldest up, they took longer to settle but eventually they learned to depend on each other to settle to sleep. Not only did making them share a room solve sleep problems, it made their relationship stronger.

We never anticipated how close they would be. Over time when we put them to bed, the crying would stop and be replaced with them singing songs, chatting and giggling together until eventually they would just fall asleep. 

We decided that they would be sharing for a long time to come. We went out and bought them bunk beds, eldest on top and youngest down the bottom. They thought these beds were such a treat! They would pass things to each other, up and down the bunks and when they missed each other we would find them sleeping on the same bed, how cute!

Having bunks has had its challenges..falling down the ladder, changing the linen on the top is a nightmare and not to mention the incident during a bout of gastro when my eldest threw up on her sleeping sister as she climbed down the ladder! Yuck! 

Look it did get to the point where they were having too much fun and being silly with the bunks that we had to separate them into two separate beds but they are still sharing. They still fight from time to time and I still fear for their life when they jump across each other's bed but I know we made the right decision in getting them to share. They love each other more than they ever would, they have learned to compromise, share a space and when I see them share a bed I know that they care deeply for each other. They depend and support each other just as sisters should.

Another baby sister has joined the family and she currently has her own room but I have no doubt in the not too distant future, she will join the gang and we will have all 3 sharing!

It's a bit old fashioned and definitely not the norm to have all our children sharing, especially when we have enough bedrooms for them all to have their own room. However, I like to challenge the norm and believe that it will strengthen our children's relationships for many years to come.

Dreams do come true

 

 

 

 

My husband and I always had a dream of ending up in a semi rural part of our country. We wanted a nice cozy, homely house surrounded by beautiful trees with some furry and feathery friends to keep us company.

To do this would mean big changes. It would mean a bigger mortgage, a change of lifestyle and little bit further out from our families. We discussed these changes time and time again. We ummed and ahhed for quite a while. We couldn’t decide when would be the right time. We always thought that the dream was in the distant future, where we would end up one day, once the kids had grown up.

We’d been renting for a couple of years, sussing out a couple of different suburbs closer to the city, closer to family to decide where our next purchase was. We looked at house prices in the area and looked at what we could realistically afford and simply couldn’t justify the prices. We would be buying a dump, a small place for a small fortune. People would say to just buy anything to get in the good area and then you can renovate. Renovate! With what money? We would be spending our hard earned money just to buy the place. We’d be lucky to have anything left over. The idea just wasn’t right for our family of almost 5!

So we went back to our idea of the dream home amongst the trees and thought, why don’t we just buy there now? The houses were cheaper and we would get a house big enough for our family. Sure, it wouldn’t be exactly what we wanted but we had a lifetime to make it our home. We took the plunge and decided it was now or never. We were going to raise our kids amongst the trees.

After a hot summer of searching, getting our hopes up on many properties and only to have our offers rejected, the right house came along for our family. So we broke our lease and moved in about month before baby number 3 arrived! It was hard but we did it.

Renting has its advantages of not having to maintain your property, possibly cheaper than a mortgage but there’s nothing like the security of your own home. I lived in my parents place for about 15 years and even when I go back to visit there is a sense of warmth, comfort and security because it was my home for so long. My husband and I needed that for our family, for us and our children. We finally found our place to truly call home where we look forward to creating many happy family memories.

Sometimes in life you need to take risks, dive in, take the plunge…dreams don’t have to be dreams, they can be reality.

xxxx