Sharing a Bedroom

My wife and I finally made the decision to rearrange our daughters' bedrooms and turn one bedroom into a true bedroom with beds for sleeping and the other bedroom into a play/toy room.  Prior to this week they each had their own bedroom.  My youngest was at the point where she was outgrowing her crib.  We took off the crib rail and turned the crib into a day bed to get her used to sleeping without a side rail. The first night for her was a little rough.  About 15 minutes after falling asleep she fell out of bed.  Fortunately we anticipated this and laid pillows and blankets on the floor so she wouldn't hurt herself.  My 2 year old doesn't fully understand this thing called gravity!  :-)  Sometime in the middle of the night she fell out of bed again and had rolled half her body under the bed with just her head sticking out!  She didn't seem to mind though since she was sleeping peacefully.  Every night since that first night has been much better.  She hasn't fallen out of bed since.

My wife and I have talked for awhile now about the advantages and disadvantages of sharing a bedroom.  Some of the disadvantages are obvious.  There will be times that my kids argue with each other about sharing space.  They have different bedtimes which makes for an interesting night time routine.  The little one has a tendency to want to talk and play when both of them are supposed to be sleeping.  On the other hand, there are several long term advantages to sharing a bedroom.  My daughter's are forced to learn how to share.  It's not that they haven't had to learn how to share now, but sharing a bedroom introduces several new sharing challenges.  They'll need to learn to respect each other and each other's privacy.  These are skills that are necessary when they go to college and potentially have roommates   Another advantage is the cleanliness of their rooms.  Prior to this week, both bedrooms were messy with toys.  Now only one bedroom is.  That's more of an advantage to us, the parents.

We also spent time talking to our oldest daughter about her wishes and desires.  She was really excited to share a bedroom with her little sister and after 4 nights she's still excited.  She doesn't like it when little sister doesn't go to bed right away and babbles, but that's something both of them will work out as they gain more experience together in the same room.

I'm not sure how this will play out in the end, but I think we made the right decision to have them share bedrooms.  The advantages outweigh the disadvantages.  I shared a bedroom with my younger brother up until I was a senior in high school and I turned out fine.  I think!  :-)