Youngest of six, four girls (I’m one of them) and two boys. Four bedroom house, and my grandmother lived with us. I remember a period of time when all four girls shared a room (two sets of bunk beds), and another where my oldest sister shared a bedroom with my grandmother. As kids grew up and moved out of the house, the sleeping arrangements shifted, but I didn’t have a room to myself until I was 14.
My next-older sister, with whom I shared a room for the longest period of time, and I fought quite a bit as teenagers. We went the whole “draw a line down the middle of the room” thing – which was a bit problematic, since the closet was on her side and the dressers were on mine! When I showed up for breakfast one morning dressed funny for school and whined to Mom that I couldn’t get to the closet because Sis wouldn’t let me set foot on her side of the room, the "your side, my side"rule was prompty thrown out by Mom (and Sis got in trouble - hee hee!)
I shared a room with my brother until I was five when my parents moved to a three bedroom house and it remained that way until I moved away from home.
I spend a lot of time in the bedroom just like when I was a kid. The BF watches TV and I like to watch DVDs so the livingroom is his and the bedroom is mine. I can spend an entire Sunday watching DVDs and crocheting and it never bothers me that I am alone, in fact I like it. Just me and the dogs enjoying my free time.
I will watch cooking shows on Saturday in the livingroom when I am cleaning but it does not bother my BF since he is usually reading the paper or sometimes working.
I think when my daughter moves out I may turn her room into my DVD, crochet, whatever room.
I’m 40, male, third of 5 kids. Grew up in a 3 bedroom house. Had to share a room with my 2 years younger brother from his birth until I was 10 and the 2 older brothers had permanently moved out. Three months after I got my own room, my mom found out to her surprise (she was 49) that she was pregnant, so my brother and I went back to sharing a room until I left for college. We got along fine, except for the fact we beat the living shit out of each other on a near-daily basis, as all brothers 2 or less years apart are wont to do.
BTW, recent investigation has shown that the room I lived in & shared with my brother for 18 years would actually fit inside the walk-in closet in the house I live in now.
muldoonthief - I find it amazing to think that my family of 7 lived in about 1000 sq ft, and while it was cozy, it wasn’t ridiculously crowded. Some years later I about dropped my teeth when I visited my (wealthy) cousin whose *master bath * occupied about 600 sq ft. The room I shared with my sister was probably 9X10 and in held 2 twin beds, a desk and chair, and an oversized closet in which my dad built a 4 drawer dresser. I think the smallest bedroom in my house now is bigger (barely) than that room was.
Youngest of 4 kids, one of three sisters. We all shared at some point.
My parents moved into a 2 bedroom house after my older brother (the only boy) was born. When my oldest sis came along a couple years later, they shared a bedroom for a few years until my parents added a master bedroom onto the house. When my other sister was born (not until 8 years later) they converted the garage into a bedroom so my big bro got his own room. I came along 4 years later, and middle sis and I shared a room. Big bro went to college and his room became the den, so middle sis and I kept sharing.
When I was 7, we moved into a 4 bedroom house so all the girls got their own room. I was happy to have my own (tiny) space, but the bickering, clothes-borrowing, and hair brush-stealing didn’t end until I moved out into my own place.
Middle child, female, with an older sister and younger brother. We had a three bedroom with (tiny) den, so the girls shared until my parents built on another room and bathroom when I was about 14 or 15. Now I have 3 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths all to myself. It’s amazing to me how houses have grown in size.
I was the oldest child - I never shared a room. I only had one brother and since I’m a chick and he isn’t we each had our own room.
My son, who is an only child, has always had his own room except for when I was with an ex who had two kids - then they shared. But that didn’t last that long THANK GOD.
My brother and I somehow mostly had our own rooms. If we did share, it was usually by choice to make the other bedroom a play room.
Now? We bought a 4br house, with just the two of us. Now we have a child (BABY! Dangit!) so the room distribution is 1 for us, 1 for her, 1 for the drums and one for my stuff. I read somewhere that it is important for people to have their own space, somewhere.
That being said, my husband grew up with 2 sisters. They never shared a room, a bathroom or a TV. Hell, they never shared a pizza. Now? Not a damn one of them knows how to share or get along. He is better than the girls, but it is odd dealing with people who never learned the lessons you learn while fighting over a bathroom.
The youngest of 4 boys. The oldest and me (the youngest) had our own rooms. The two middle ones shared a bedroom. We all shared the second bathroom. All brothers were one year apart, so they all left for college right after each other. After brother next to me moved out, I moved into the room he and Bro. 2 shared. I ended up with by far the biggest bedroom in the house and my own private bathroom. Hell, the bedroom I had then is bigger than the bedroom I have now. All at the ripe old age of 11.
I’m 32 now, and the oldest of 4 kids: two brothers and one sister. I’m 4 years older than the next brother, 6 older than my sister and 7 older than the youngest brother.
For the bulk of our childhood lives (about 1982 until 1993) we lived in a 2-bedroom duplex, and so the 4 of us had to share a small bed room. There was just enough room for 2 bunk beds, two dressers and a small walk-in closet. I didn’t have my own room again until I graduated from High School and went to University. Ah, my dorm room was heaven!!
In all honesty though, the majority of the time we got along just fine. The bedroom was never our “private space”, so we found other places to call our own when we did not want to be bothered.
I shared a bedroom with my older brother for 16 years. We were 17 months apart in age, and started out in the downstairs bedroom with double cribs. When he was old enough to move to the upstairs bedroom with twin beds, he said that he wanted to wait until I could move up there too. My mother was touched by that, and moved us both up there. It was a large bedroom, and we had our own dressers, closets, and desks. In fact, we had the whole second floor to ourselves.
We got along well, and the nicest part was talking to each other at night before we went to sleep. I missed him when he went off the college and there was no one to talk to.
Female, 38. I have a brother who is 10 years older and a sister who is just over a year older. I grew up in a three-bedroom row house. My sister and I shared a bedroom until I was 11 - at that point my brother had moved out and my dad had finished remodelling his bedroom, which my parents moved into. But I still didn’t have a door I could close! The house was from the 19th century, you see, before indoor plumbing. Space to put in a bathroom had been taken from the front bedroom, meaning that the only way into that bedroom was through the middle bedroom. And being the youngest, I of course got stuck with the middle bedroom. My sister got the front room and never bothered to knock or otherwise announce herself when walking through my room
Just as I was turning 14 we moved to a new house, where I finally got a room that was really just mine.
My husband, on the other hand, is the oldest of 5, three boys and a girl, and his parents built an enormous house so that each of the kids would have their own room.
By the time my folks finished up with kids in '66 they had five kids to stuff in two rooms. I shared a room with my oldest and youngest sisters, until the oldest was moved into the garage converted into a room. I then shared not only a room but a double bed with my youngest sister for a few more years. The boys (2) shared a room. One by one they moved out and eventually we were left with the youngest two, myself and sister and then we got our own rooms.
My two kids have their own rooms, we have 4 bedrooms in this house.
I’m the oldest of three girls and my sisters are quite a bit younger than I as well as being only fifteen months apart. Aside from short periods of time when I was very young, and one memorable stint of having to share with both of them when I was nine for almost a year I’ve always had my own room. I would’ve thinned the herd if I’d had to share a room with either of them, although my middle sister is the quieter one–she might have survived the experience!
My kids (one boy, one girl) shared a room up until the older started school–we let her pick her colors to decorate her own room as a birthday present. They didn’t seem to mind much, but I think it would have become more of an issue the older they got, since there’s a distinct Oscar/Felix thing between the two of them.
It really amazes me to compare houses built in the fifties–three bedrooms, one bath, maybe 1200 SF at the most–to what’s considered the bare minimum these days. Those old fifties tract houses are considered today’s “starter homes” or the ones older couples “downsize” to–not family houses any longer. I think Americans are spoiled rotten when it comes to living space!
37, oldest of three girls, with 18 months between myself and my middle sister, and 7 years between myself and the youngest.
I had my own room until I was 14, shared a room for about a year, then took over the apartment/basement of our house.
The house we lived in had 3 bedrooms upstairs, and 2 downstairs in the fully finished basement.
My two younger sisters shared a room, but when us older girls became teenagers, my mother decided it made more sense for us to share and let our youngest sister have her own room. We shared a room for about a year and it was a miserable experience. I finally got sick of arguing with her and took over the entire basement for myself at 15. It was great. Had my own living room (complete with TV, Atari, pinball machine, jukebox style stereo system, and dart board, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. We used the other bedroom as sort of a storage area/laundry area since it was close to the washer and dryer.
42, oldest of 2 girls. We grew up in a 3 bedroom house (one bathroom). We both had our own rooms, mainly because we were adopted and the Adoption Board rules were that each adoptee had to have their own bedroom. Besides that, we likely would have been at each others’ throats if we’d had to share.
