I grew up part of a family of 7 in a 3 bedroom row house. My first sister was born when I was 15 months old, and she and I shared a room till I left home at 19. I didn’t get a room of my own till I got my first apartment at 21. My husband was one of 3 sons, and when they were small, their dad combined 2 bedrooms into one, setting it up like a dorm room for the 3 boys.
As I think back, most of my friends were onlies or had just one sibling, so they pretty much all had rooms to themselves - oh how I envied them!! But I know other of my contemporaries shared bedrooms.
From my days of wasting time with HGTV porn, homebuyers seem to be obsessed with a room for each kid, plus a spare guest room. On the very rare occasions when we had company, we ended up on the sofa bed in the basement and our guests got our bedrooms.
Did you share a room as a kid? Do your kids share a room? Did any of your friends have to share bedrooms? If you could give your age and where you live(d), that would be interesting for me to know too.
Growing up, I shared a bedroom with all three of my siblings (two other boys, one girl). We had two bunk beds in our room. I’m 36, so this was growing up in Cleveland in the 80’s and early 90’s. We all shared that room until I left for college. When my parent’s bought a new house, my sister and brothers finally had their own rooms.
I have one son now so of course he has his own room but if we had another kid I would expect them to share rooms.
I grew up with one older sister, and we shared a room until she moved out at eighteen (I was about fourteen). I had a friend with two sisters, and they all had their own rooms, though, and we were in the same economic class. So maybe it was a priority for her family?
I shared a room with a brother for a couple of yars when i was around 5 to 8.
My kids always had their own rooms, except for some houses we rented after my separation from their mother. They were only there half time, and didn’t mind sharing. After I settled down permanently, they each had their own room again in both houses.
I was an only child that grew up in a two bedroom house, never shared a bedroom. At nearly 40 I still have a ‘thing’ about having my my own space. I’ve wondered if the two things are related.
I almost got my own room at one point. When my mom was expecting #5, there were 3 girls and my brother. The deal was, if the new baby was a boy, he would get the little room with my brother, my 2 sisters would room together, and I’d get the room my dad was building in the basement. In 1965, you found out the baby’s sex at birth, and when my last sister showed up, there went my chance at a room of my own. Stoopit Terri…
We have one daughter, so she’s always had a room of her own. In fact, in one house, there was a split bedroom floor plan, so she got a “suite” of 2 bedrooms and a bathroom to herself.
I mostly had two bedrooms to myself growing up. We were not rich by any stretch of the imagination but most of our houses had 4 bedrooms. My parents had one, my brother had one and for some reason I always had the other two and would move between them when I felt like it.
My older sister and I shared a bedroom for a while, but eventually I got my own room.
I have two daughters. When I was expecting the second, my husband insisted that it was not necessary to have separate bedrooms for them. Hah. Daughter #2 had major sleep issues, resulting in her sister not getting the sleep she needed. We built an addition to the house so they could have separate rooms. (Also provided a much-improved kitchen.)
In the house I lived in up until I was 8, we sometimes shared bedrooms. 3 boys, 2 girls. The two oldest boys shared a room in the basement, but they also had a big family room down there so they had a LOT of space, and their own bathroom.
I shared a room with my sister until I was maybe 3 or 4, when my Dad decided to give up his study so my youngest brother moved down there, and I got his room.
From then on, I always had my own bedroom. We moved to a new house after I turned 8, and at that point my older siblings had graduated from high school and were moving in and out, so at any given time there were always enough bedrooms in the new house for us all to have our own.
Hell, even now I have my own room - I share a bedroom with Mr. Athena, but we each have our own offices. I can’t imagine giving that up, even if I didn’t work from home. I like having my own space that doesn’t have to comply to anyone else’s standards of tidiness or decor.
22 here, middle-class-ish family in Chicago suburbs. We had the smallest house in the neighborhood, a 2-bedroom bungalow. Until I was about 9 and my sisters were 7 and 4, we all shared a bed. After that we got bunk beds with a trundle underneath, and a couple years later my mother died, my dad started sleeping in the living room, and I got my own room. Later, my dad took his bedroom back and created 2 very small rooms for my sisters in the basement. This arrangement lasted until I finished high school. So for most of my childhood, my siblings and I did not have our own rooms. This was not the norm among most of my peers, but it was a pretty rich town. One of my friend’s families had 8 kids in a 3 bedroom apartment.
45, grew up in Philadelphia in a 3 bedroom ranch, shared an 8’x11’ room with my 2-year-younger brother for essentially my entire childhood. We had our own rooms for about a month when I was 10, until my mother went & got knocked up again and the baby needed a room.
My 3 daughters each have their own room, in a 4 bedroom house. When we have guests, we make two of them double up to free up a bedroom.
I have one brother. My parents didn’t think it was appropriate for siblings of opposite gender to share bedrooms, so I always had my own room. They first had a 3-bedroom and then a 4-bedroom house, so it was never an issue.
Most of my friends also had their own rooms. It was regarded as unusual to be sharing, but this was middle-to-upper class suburbia and most people’s houses were pretty sizeable.
I am 5th of 6, so I didn’t have my own room until enough of my siblings had moved out/gone to college.
One of my brothers was appalled that my mom gave “his” room to my sister so that she and I could finally have separate rooms. It seemed very reasonable to him that we keep sharing while his room stayed, and empty shrine waiting for his return.
I have 2 kids (boy and girl) and they shared a room in our previous 3-bedroom old house, because we reserved the third bedroom for an office. Then we moved into a 5 bedroom and they now have their own room, we have an office and a guest room.
I grew up as my custodial parent’s only child, so not only did I have my own bedroom I also always had a playroom as well. At my non-custodial parents, where I’m one of 4 I only was there for vacations and summers really so my room was the guest room when I wasn’t there.
My mother’s house, which was my main childhood home, had three bedrooms. I have a younger brother and sister, and my sister and I shared a room there while my brother had his own room.
When my parents divorced, my father moved into a two-bedroom apartment for about a year. For six months of that, he slept on the couch whenever we were there (which was every other week and it was a terrible couch, poor Dad), I took his room, and my siblings had a bunk bed in the other room. For the last six months or so, I had a twin bed in with my siblings.
After that apartment, my dad moved to another three-bedroom house. I had my own room there and my brother and sister shared one until Dad renovated the garage and turned it into a mini-suite with a fourth bedroom and a second bathroom. I got shuffled out there and my sister got my old room.
Neither arrangement would’ve been particularly unusual among my friends growing up, though I think most of them had their own rooms solely because they only had one sibling and three-bedroom houses were the most common configuration in the area. I’m 27 and I grew up in solidly middle class suburban Tennessee.
I’m a guy. I shared a bed with my three year older sister until the end of 2nd grade. We moved and we all had separate bedrooms. Looking back on it yes it was odd sharing bed with opposite gender. Sure didn’t bother me then though.
I’ve always had my own room except for one year when my aunt, uncle and 2 cousins moved in. They all shared my old bedroom and I shared my brother’s bedroom (I’m a girl). I was 5 years old and I thought it was the best thing EVER because I idolize my big brother.
My parents both grew up in small houses with large families so I have a feeling they were adamant about having just 2 kids and each of us getting our own rooms.
