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I have got two 8 year old siblings (Twin boy and girl).

They want to continue sleeping in the same bedroom. Is this a negative thing to do? What is the accepted guidance? Are there any studies on implications of co-sleeping at this age?

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    If you are asking for opinions, you'll get a wide variety of them. If you're looking for what studies have shown, you need to be specific. Also, it varies by country and culture, so some background might help. Thanks. :)
    – anongoodnurse
    Mar 25, 2022 at 0:45

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There are a few things to consider

  1. Would that it any way be harmful to their development? That's unlikely. Apparently they like being around each other, which is great. It certainly beats fighting all day! The only thing to watch here is they don't get overly attached and dependent, so they stop making friends and socializing with other kids.
  2. Will this enabling any type of sexual behavior? IMO that's a non-issue. They are still too young and while sexual activity between siblings isn't unheard of, it's fairly uncommon. If any, sleeping in the same room will probably slow down some self exploration. Separate rooms doesn't help in this regard at all.
  3. How do you feel about it? You are concerned but you haven't articulated what your concerns are. It would help if you write them down and look at them one by one as rational as you can.
  4. What's the public perception? That depends highly on local culture and norms, so without country tag or your family context, that's hard to comment on.

We had our three kids (2 boys, 1 girl) in the same room until they were about 10, 9 & 7. They liked it that way and no one ever complained about it. The decision to split up was triggered by a major house remodeling project, not by request from the kids.

20 years later they still have a very close relationship although they live on different continents.

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  • Really like this answer except for claim made in point #2. Do you have a source to back that up? It's not intuitive. Nice to hear that your kids are still very close! :)
    – anongoodnurse
    Mar 25, 2022 at 14:14
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    What specific claim in 2? There are multiple ones and I want to make sure I shoot at the right target :-)
    – Hilmar
    Mar 25, 2022 at 18:21
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    Sorry! "They are still too young and almost all siblings are strongly wired against that anyway." Mostly, though, the hard wired part.
    – anongoodnurse
    Mar 25, 2022 at 20:11
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    I would include some sources from the Wikipedia page on the Westermarck Effect: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_effect
    – htmlcoderexe
    Mar 25, 2022 at 20:34
  • Good point. I'll update based on pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7396691/….
    – Hilmar
    Mar 26, 2022 at 16:50

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