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Currently we have one bedroom for our two daughters. Until what age can they share their room?

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+1 nice question, i have heard (but somewhat doubt) it's a legal requirement here in the UK for this to cease at a certain age for mixed sex siblings ... any answers which can add any legal information would be welcome. – hawbsl Mar 29 '11 at 23:18
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or perhaps my question about mixed-sex siblings should be a separate question if @Andra is specifically asking about same-sex – hawbsl Mar 29 '11 at 23:19
@hawbsl yes please make it a separate question as the issues at stake are completely different. – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun♦ Mar 30 '11 at 8:39
When did the "same-sex" entered the question? – user35 Mar 30 '11 at 16:39
In some cultures, several generations all sleep in the same room. So there's no general, cross-cultural answer here. – Jay Bazuzi Mar 30 '11 at 23:45
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6 Answers

up vote 24 down vote accepted

Having one's own room can be nice, but it's never a necessity. It's only in the last generation or two that it became common to give children separate bedrooms instead of just having a boys' room and a girls' room.

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Yup, my answer would be 'when the first one leaves home' :) – Benjol May 29 '11 at 20:18
+1. The only year my brother and I didn't share a room was the year I was in middle school and he was in elementary, which meant we woke up at different times. We continued to share a room up until I left for college. – David Oneill May 30 '11 at 4:38
Surely the question was should, not must? – deworde Feb 15 '12 at 9:32
up vote -1 down vote

Originally there was a law in Uk forbidding bedroom sharing for brothers & sisters above the age of puberty. However, that law has apparently been repealed.

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I removed your joke as it seemed extraneous. With or without the joke though, you are still not offering up an actual answer. Perhaps that is why you were down-voted. Tell us your answer and maybe some votes will come your way. – balanced mama Nov 4 '12 at 3:07
up vote 2 down vote

There doesn't seem to be any law in the UK to stop children of the opposite sex sharing a room (advice on overcrowding) - which makes sense. I can't see why the same wouldn't be true for mainland Europe. So I think we can assume that children of the same sex can share a room as well.

With no legal reason compelling your daughters to sleep in separate rooms it becomes a personal choice. I can't say when they should stop sharing as that will be different for each set of siblings, but my 2 boys won't be separated unless I think it is affecting their sleep. Obviously as they get older the criteria may change.

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I could not imagine any law like that being passed nor controlled except in shelters like you link to – mplungjan Jun 7 '11 at 13:17
Shelter is a uk charity dealing with housing problems, including homelessness. – DanBeale Aug 10 '11 at 6:01
up vote 3 down vote

As one of 5 I shared a room with 1 brother and a sister for many years, then as elder siblings began to leave home we all started to get our own rooms:-)

My suggestion - make do with whatever space you have. If they fight and you can't solve that problem, then it may make sense to split them up, but otherwise it will depend on the space you have in your house/flat etc

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up vote 9 down vote

Same-sex siblings don't need separate rooms, at least not if they're roughly the same age. Sharing a room teaches valuable social lessons. It's more a matter of how well they get along in general, and how much space you can afford.

I wouldn't put a 2-year-old in a room with a 12-year-old though, or two siblings that terrorize each other.

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up vote 3 down vote

My brother and I shared 'til we happened to move house and my sister moved out - I was 14, he was 16. We didn't have any problems about it (but we did get along rather well).

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Uh, so when did you have time to beat the bologna, butter the corn, burp the worm? It's a serious question. Was it an issue for you? – bobobobo Jan 1 '12 at 23:46
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@bobobobo I was somehow sure he could never hear me. Maybe he couldn't, 'cause I couldn't hear him! – Arlen Feb 6 '12 at 22:13
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Maybe you got along well because you shared bedroom? It could be interesting to see others experience around this... – awe Jun 20 '12 at 7:14
@awe: it could well be! That said, I have two cousins (both female) who shared a room, and they are not what I'd call the best of friends. – Arlen Jun 20 '12 at 10:34
Well that kind of proves that it can work well for some, but not for others... – awe Jun 20 '12 at 11:10

protected by Beofett♦ Mar 29 at 18:09

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