- Hi! I read often but don’t comment too much… I was just curious as to how many bedrooms your house has and how you decided on who shares with who? Feel free to answer in a comment or blog post:) By Anonymous on Back to School on 9/11/11
There are five “real” bedrooms in our house, meaning those that are classified as bedrooms for real estate purposes. But recently we made a sixth “bedroom” for three-year-old Aria by building out a wall and adding a door onto the retreat area off of our master bedroom. It’s a tiny little room with no closet, but it suits her just fine!
As for the five “real” bedrooms in the house…
Our two oldest girls, Audriana & Afton, each have their own room. They used to share a bedroom up until about two years ago. We gave them their own rooms for a few reasons: 1) We thought they would become better friends if they had their own space. *Nice thought, but didn’t happen. 2) One was extremely messy and the other was the opposite, which caused a lot of arguments. *Now that they each have their own room, the “neater” of the two has turned into a bit of a slob herself. I think this is because deep down she misses sharing a room with her sister and now keeps her room messy for sentimental reasons. 3) These are the two who help out the most around the house, being the oldest girls in the family, and so we thought we would reward them with rooms of their own. 4) I was tired of hearing the fighting. *Biggest reason for the change.
The two middle girls, Avery & Aislynn, share a room. This arrangement happened strictly because of age order. These two have their moments, but for the most part they don’t seem to mind sharing a bedroom. They are both a little on the messy side, so there’s no clashing of personalities in that department. Each will occasionally ask, “When do WE get OUR own bedroom?” from time to time – whine, whine, whine – but for the most part, they do just fine sharing a bedroom.
**And of course there is the master bedroom, which I would say belongs to my husband and I, but the truth is they all flop in our room every night. And throughout the day. Just whenever. And whoever. But yeah, technically that’s OUR bedroom.
Then finally, all four of our boys are in one room.
I know what you might be thinking, “Oh wow…all four boys in one room? How unfair is that?” First of all, let me tell you that they have the largest of the secondary bedrooms. There is really quite a bit of space in that room. And it has been my experience that boys really don’t care too much about sharing a room. They almost prefer it. If someone is going to cry or complain about sharing a room with a sibling, it’s going to be one of my girls. My girls want their privacy. My boys couldn’t care less about privacy. They walk around naked half the time, they don’t care. My girls will divide the room and say, “This is MY side and that is YOUR side!” but my boys have never done that. They will happily flop on each other’s bed to share a Gameboy screen. If the girls’ room is messy, my girls will fight about who made the mess, who has to pick up what, whose sock that is hanging on the lamp, etc. My boys, well they don’t mind if their room is messy in the first place, so there’s never any fighting about who made the mess … because they really don’t care!
(Notice how I word it MY boys and MY girls. I do this because it might not be a “boy” thing or a “girl” thing, but this is just my experience with my own kids!)
And so that’s how the rooms are divided up in our home. Not too exciting, I know. But well, someone asked!
If there is anything you’d like to ask me regarding our family, how we do things, how I keep from going crazy with all these kids running around – just put it in a comment and I’ll answer your question on one of my “Q & A” posts.
Hey there! This was a great idea
I am just wondering since you are such a big family…
How well do your kids get along? Who gets along the best?
Also, what is your “boyfriend/”girlfriend” rule for your household?
Ooh – I love when you can ask questions. Here’s mine: What are your chore and allowance systems? And do you link the two?
The group photo of all of your kids is gorgeous! I love all the natural colors and the arrangement of the kiddos. You’ll have to redo it when “The Butterfly” is in your arms.
This has nothing to do with the “bedrooms” post, but, oh well.
what is your laundry system? how many loads do you do a day? how/where do you fold and sort and put away etc? i can’t get my laundry in control and i only have 3 kids!
Since we lost our home we rent a 2bdr apartment. The oldest boy is in his own room and the little guy has his bed with us (I know, BAD) we will hopefully made the change for them to share but the little guy still wakes up at night.