My siblings are all between 13 and 19 years older than me so I never had to share. My younger big brother was the only one I actually lived with, but he moved out when I was five and I don’t have any actual memories of living with him.
I’m twenty-four, youngest of three, and the only daughter. My two brothers are older than me by ten and fifteen years, so there was a bit of bedroom roulette when I came around. My parents moved into the house I spent my prepubescent years in within a couple of years of the first son being born. It was a three bed/two bath house, and there wasn’t any problems when the second brother was born. I was born ten years later, and while I was still crib aged, I slept in my parents’ room in a crib. After that, I switched back and forth between the brothers’ rooms (trundle-style bunk beds are a godsend) until the older brother went away to college around when I was five. When he’d come back during the summer, we’d keep the same scenario, and it wasn’t a big deal. The middle brother moved out as soon as he graduated high school, and within a few years, older brother came back and moved into middle brother’s room.
In addition to this, I was never allowed to stay in my room if the beds were needed for guests. If guests were coming over, I had the choice of staying in my parents’ room or on the pull-out couch in the living room. Way back when Hurricane Andrew hit in the early '90s, I remember we ended up inviting a lot of family friends to stay with us because we were one of the few houses far enough away from the shore and the Intracoastal Waterway. Eleven people and four dogs does make for an interesting experience, and somehow I slept through most of it.
I think most of these HGTV McMansion Madness shows are insane, but I do like some of the concepts presented, like mudrooms and laundry rooms that double as sewing rooms and study areas. I just don’t think that I need a huge house to live well.
I’m 21 and I’m an only child so I never had to share a bedroom except when we had relatives. I did share a room for my first two years of college though and when I finally got my own room at school it felt a bit lonely at first.
I’m pretty sure my mom shared a bedroom with her own single mother until she graduated high school. Eek!
I had a room to myself until my sister was born when I was 16 months old. By the time we moved to a three bedroom house so she could have her own room, my first brother had arrived, so I had a roommate or two (second brother) until I went to high school when I picked up an addition 40 roommates as I boarded at high school in an open dorm.
I finally got my own room, again, in my junior year of high school when we moved again and I got to use the den as a bedroom, but only in the summer and on vacations. In college I still had roommates for freshman year, then I was finally roommate free until I got married.
For most of my childhood, I didn’t share a room. Our family is one girl and one boy, so that worked out pretty well. I have very vague memories of the tiny house we lived in when my dad was finishing grad school where I (age 3) and my brother (age 1) shared an attic bedroom – it was one big room, but had two dormers so there was a part for me, and a part for baby brother.
If you would like to be truly horrified, we did a casual study at the college where I work and found that about half of the students had never shared a bathroom, much less a bedroom.
I never had my own room until I was 13. Until then I shared with my brother, who is five years younger than me.
I’m 25 now.
Never shared a bathroom?? Holy cow - 7 of us shared a single bathroom. We learned at an early age to shower FAST!!!
44, oldest of 4, with 2 bros (I’m male), & my sis (the baby).
I often shared a room with one or the other brother. A good experience.
In contrast, I hated sharing a dorm room in college.
I’m an only child, but I shared a bedroom (and a bed) with my mom until my future-stepdad moved in when I was 13.
We just couldn’t afford more than a one-bedroom apartment. shrug It’s just how it was.
My first husband was in the middle of 9 kids. By the time I knew him, there were only 5 at home. They lived in a quonset (think chicken house) with 2 bedrooms – one for the parents (this room also had the toilet). The other bedroom had two beds, 2 girls in one and 2 boys in the other. The fifth boy slept on the couch in the living room. I have no idea what they did when all 9 were at home.
The house had no closets – clothes hung everywhere – and no running water except for the toilet.
This is an extreme example of how much space people can get by with.
Technically, as an infant I shared a room with my 15yr old brother, but after a few months or so, he went to live at my grandparents house. After that, my other brother, myself, my parents, and my paternal grandmother each had our own rooms(although my parents preferred to sleep on the pull-out couch in the living room, for some reason).
My parents had eight kids – the 2nd oldest and 2nd youngest were girls (youngest died at 3). (Looks down) I’m a boy.
Until I was twelve, we only had 2 bedrooms; so all the kids slept in 1 bedroom. Not clear on the details but I remember one huge bed full of folks, but there had to have been at least a second bed, if not a third.
After 12, my parents added 2 more bedrooms, but 1 former bedroom became something like a den/TV room.
Again, I don’t remember all the details, but my (remaining) sister got her own room (damn her); since my oldest brother left home soon after, that would mean 5 boys left in the other bedroom. I occasionally slept on the sofa in the TV room just for some relief, but climber that I hoped to be took pride in having a room, other than the kitchen or living room that no one had to sleep in.
So yeah, I’m totally anal about having my own private space now. Why do you ask?
I have never had my own room. I was the middle brother in the “boys” room, so my elder brother was there when I was born. My younger brother was there when elder brother moved out, so again there were two(there were a number of years when we were all there). I lived at home for the first couple of years of college, got married, and moved off to university with my wife. She’s refused to let me have my own room for the past twelve years, so here I am, still sharing.
Enjoy,
Steven
I’m the oldest, but from the time I had a little brother (5 years younger) I had a roommate until I left home. I shared a room with anywhere from 1-3 people over the years.
I didn’t think of it as HAVING to share a room, the idea of having my own room just didn’t occur to me. Why wouldn’t I share a room with my brother?
33, female, twin sister and younger brother
I shared a room with my twin sister from conception to about age 14, when my dad built his dream house and we each got our own rooms. (Too bad he didn’t bother to build a dream marriage - mom & dad ended up divorcing & selling it a mere four years later.)
We each had our own bedroom when I was a kid, but I preferred to share a room with my brother (his bedroom was bigger and had twin beds) and use mine just for toys and playspace. When he got to the whole puberty era and wanted his privacy I had to go stay in my own room, which I didn’t like at all for the first year.
Currently I live alone in a three bedroom house. I occupy the smallest bedroom- I like the feeling of “closeness” or whatever.
For most of my youth I had to share a room with my brother. My memories of that time are not too bad. I never had the yearning for my own room.
I shared a bedroom with two sisters until age 7, one sister until age 10, and then I was more or less an only child. I really dug having my own room.
For this reason, I think it’s kind of a weird tradition to share a bed with one’s spouse. I mean, in my case, getting my own space felt like a rite of maturity; I “graduated” from sharing with two sisters, to sharing with one sister, to having my own room. Then I went to college and back-tracked a little, because I shared a dorm-room with a roommate my freshman year. Sophomore year, however, I moved off campus into my own apartment, and have pretty much had my own room, in whatever living situation, until I got married (at which point I had my own house).
Now, I share not only a house and a room, but also a BED.
It’s just weird. Nice . . . cozy . . . but weird. It’s like going back to sleeping in a crib. (Metaphorically speaking, of course; I have yet to convince my husband to change my diapers. ;))
Only child, never had to share.
5 kids, three kid bedrooms, 6 kid beds, they all play revolving beds and/or floor, depending on the day and the politics. Many times they would all be asleep in the same room. Only lately has my 12-almost 13 year old daughter asked to have her own room, and she does. Although the 3 year old often climbs in bed, or sleeps in a chair, or sleeps on the floor in her room. I’ve seen her try to find him, and drag him into her room, kind of like a nice warm teddy bear. I stay out of it, and they tend to really like each other, for the most part. I think it is much more natural to share, then to separate from an early age.
I am not a family bed type, I like my sleep and sex too much.
But just as I like sleeping with my husband, I can understand why kids would want to share a room.
My brother and I shared a very small room (10 x 8) until I was 14 and we moved. I was very pleased as I got to have a bed in the room that lead to my brother’s room and the back door. Oddly enough my brother’s room became the TV room when he left home 3 years later. What a strange floor plan…but much better than my earlier years. To this day I always want my back toward the walls of cafes, meeting rooms and so forth. Apparently I learned as a teenage boy to keep an eye out for whoever was walking through my room.
I’m a 64 year old geezer. We didn’t expect much in the 40s/50s/60s.