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.
