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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, 2011 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, 2011 at 23:19
  • @hawbsl yes please make it a separate question as the issues at stake are completely different.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Mar 30, 2011 at 8:39
  • When did the "same-sex" entered the question?
    – user35
    Mar 30, 2011 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, 2011 at 23:45

4 Answers 4

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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, 2011 at 20:18
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    +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, 2011 at 4:38
  • Surely the question was should, not must?
    – deworde
    Feb 15, 2012 at 9:32
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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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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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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, 2011 at 13:17
  • Shelter is a uk charity dealing with housing problems, including homelessness.
    – DanBeale
    Aug 10, 2011 at 6:01

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