In Germany it is very common for children to share a bedroom. Most likely it is due to the ‘smaller living’ here. I know families of four in our neighborhood who live in 80 or 85 square meters (~ 900 sq feet) and with that space you just have one kids room. In fact, it’s so common, you usually hear the room referred to as the Kinderzimmer, (kids’ room), as opposed to "P’s room". You also often see bunk beds, or this spielbett (play bed) that we have in blue for big brother; it is not so tall to have another bed underneath it, but enough space for toy or treasure storage.
I can definitely see some advantages to sharing a room; our boys share a lot of the same toys, so why distribute them between two rooms and sharing a room must certainly lead to a tight bond. On the other hand it is nice to have a little space of your own, and I could imagine some logistical difficulties with our boys’ sleeping schedules. We are fortunate that in our new home, each boy has their own, albeit small, room. I can’t recall any of my friends growing up in the States sharing a room and I wonder what is common in the rest of Europe. Any thoughts to share?
5 comments:
I, an American, shared a room with my little brother until I was 16. Although it got a little restrictive in later years, and we were jealous of my sister for having her own room, it was actually pretty fun to share a room with my most common play-mate. On the other hand, we always got along well, and we were pretty close in age (2 years) so I'm sure that helped. I didn't think siblings of the same gender sharing a room was all that uncommon in the US.
I love it!
Wow what a gorgeous room! We had our kids in 2 rooms for quite a while until our youngest turned three - we moved back to germany last September and she was lonely in her own room and having trouble sleeping. Now they happily share a room and the other room is a play room.
so cute!! we're debating the whole sharing-a-room thing here now...i hope it goes as well for our boys as it seems to have for the folks above. I love this low bunk bed - our ceilings are too low for a traditional height bunk system (also too close to the ceiling fan...I can just see one of the boys trying to "fly" by grabbing on to it, lol!)
I also like the low bunk, you can lift your child into bed if needed, check on them more easily if he/she is sick and change the sheets much more easily! I could see our boys sharing a room when baby brother is a bit older, but right now his bad sleeping habits (we are working on, slowly getting better) would be quite disruptive to big brother...
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