When siblings want to share bedroom

‘Baby Boy can look after me, and I can look after him’

Three-year-old Big Girl has decided that Baby Boy should sleep in her room instead of ours or his room, as he can look after her at night and she can help look after him. I thought it was a brilliant idea until I decided to test it.

The problem was that we were expecting guests an hour after putting them to bed the day I let Big Girl have it her way, and it took a good extra 40 minutes to get them to sleep, giving me 20 minutes to tidy the house, pick peas from the entire kitchen floor and find something to wear.

Baby Boy seemed slightly confused with the new arrangement, staring with eyes wide open at the pink cottage play house suddenly parked next to his bed and refusing to go to sleep. Big Girl had a cheeky grin on her face and promised to be ‘super duper quiet’, which really meant ‘not very quiet at all’ and was throwing the duvet left, right and centre.

I had to let Baby Boy cry for a bit and go back and forth to soothe him. But after that I guess it worked. They slept beautifully next to each other – at least for eight hours before Baby Boy decided to give Daddy T and me a rude awakening and was moved back to our bedroom to avoid disturbing big sister.

The next day, however, Big Girl asked if he could stay longer in her bedroom, and we read books together at bedtime and let them try one more day. It might not always work to have siblings sleep in the same bedroom, but as long as they don’t disturb each other and enjoy the company, I think it’s very sweet.

Big Girl may well get it her way from now on, as I’ve started looking for a new bed for her room to make the arrangement more permanent.

Tags: Children's bedrooms, Growing up, Sharing room, Siblings, Sleep, Sleep deprivation