My brother and I had to share a room until we moved, when we were 13 and 14, and then we finally got our own rooms. They were tiny but it was still better than sharing.
I didn’t, but that’s because my two siblings were boys and my parents fell into the default of grouping us by sex. If they’d grouped us by habits, I would have shared with Middlebro (we’re both morning people). When I was a child, whether you shared or not was basically a matter of luck in sibling pairings and birth order, it was relatively rare to share with more than one sibling but even families with large houses had siblings sharing: for example, one of my classmates had three sisters and a six bedroom house… and the two grandmothers living with them, so the sisters were all paired up.
My nephews (boy and girl) don’t share with each other, but she used to share with her grandmother when said grandma visited; the grandmother now sleeps in the upper floor (they have a duplex, the upper floor is a rec room, a small bathroom and two large balconies/small terraces).
In Spain it is common to have kids sharing, specially if they’re the same sex and even if the number of people equals the number of bedrooms. Many people prefer to have a guest room (which often doubles as a study room for the kids, or a playroom, or a parent’s office) than to have all bedrooms permanently occupied.
My sister and I each had our own rooms but we shared by choice when we were younger. I was probably about 8 when I moved into my room.
My best friends had to share a room because their parents slept in separate rooms.
My son has his own room because he is an only child.
I’m an only child, in my early thirties. Obviously I always had my own room, but never a playroom too (spare rooms were given over to my parents’ hobbies). I had friends who shared rooms with their siblings.
Now that I’m having babies myself I’m loathe to make them share rooms when they’re small because I think it magnifies bedtime issues. We have a three-bedroom house and I think two kids will take me to the limit of my competence, so I doubt the issue will come up.
I and all my friends and family members (that I know of) had their own rooms as kids, at least after age 5 or so. I grew up in a 2-story, and sometimes the room arrangements were weird, but everyone had their own space. We had 2 bedrooms on the main floor, and a spare room upstairs that suffered from a lack of proper climate control. I lived in the basement for a while (because I wanted to, not because I had to). Then in the spare room upstairs. Then my mom and stepdad moved their bedroom to the upstairs room, and my sister and I got the 2 bedrooms on the main floor (they wanted more privacy, plus our 2nd floor bathroom had the only functional shower in the house). Awhile later, my stepdad’s brother moved in, and his dad built him a finished room in our unfinished basement. So by then, we had 5 people living in four bedrooms.
Apparently, my sister and I did share a bedroom (and actually, a bed) for a little while as very small kids, but I don’t remember that at all. I’ve just seen pictures. But I think it’s very important for kids to have their own space once they develop modesty, even if it’s just by hanging curtains or setting up a few room dividers.
I will likely never have a kid (much less kids), but if I did I would *never *put them in bunk beds. Optimally they would all have their own room, but at the very least they would have their own blocked-off private spaces. I believe it’s a good idea to stop having kids once you run out of space for extra beds and can’t afford a larger house. Maybe that wasn’t the case 50 years ago, but this isn’t 50 years ago. 
In past eras, there was a good reason to have more kids than you had room for, and to share rooms and beds (farm families requiring as many hands as possible, poor heat or no heat, and people spent almost no time in that room except to sleep anyway). But that isn’t the case nowadays; with the advent of computers and air conditioning, kids do a *lot *of stuff in their rooms. And I believe people who reproduce beyond their ability to provide a comfortable life for all their kids are inconsiderate. Because *everybody *deserves a private space to call their own. I don’t care if anyone has a dozen kids, though, as long as they live in a thirteen-bedroom house (or a 7-bedroom house with dividers and no more than 2 kids to a room).
Exactly this. My father gave up his “office” when we became teenagers so each of the three children had his/her own room. We did have my aunt’s family come to live with us for a little over a year and sis and I were back together during that time. I was very glad when they moved out.
My kids have their own rooms. The only friends they have that share rooms are from large families (five kids) or are living near poverty level. Two kids in a three bedroom house means no sharing is needed.
Not many of my kids friends have more than one sibling.
With my own girlfriends it’s similar, more than two kids at or near the poverty line and you are sharing bedrooms.
There probably isn’t a lot of HGTV porn around “Susan and John have five kids and make $30k a year, and are shopping for a house.” Now, I’m in the Twin Cities, not living in a place where 700
sqft is $300k.
Growing up, I was one of three girls. Early on my sister and I shared a room and the baby got her own room. Then I started junior high and got my own room and my sister shared with the baby. When she started junior high, a room was built for her (the walkout basement had been unfinished.). Before the baby came, when I was really little, my sister and I shared and we had a playroom…the playroom became the nursery, which might explain some resentment towards my baby sister.
I’m 29, female, shared a tiny room and bunk beds with my brother 'til I was 8 and he was 11. We lived in a three bedroom house, but my elderly great-aunt lived in the third room.
I really wouldn’t have wanted to share any later than then; none of my friends had to share with an opposite sex sibling after about 6 or so. I believe a lady from the council persuaded my aunty to move out, in part for that reason. She shared not only a room but a bed with her mother until her mother died age 99 (when she was in her 70s).
There were just two of us, me and my brother, and there was only one time, for about a year, when we had to share a room.
I had four kids and two of the boys shared a room all the time they were growing up. They could have separated but neither of them wanted the room next to ours, so they stayed together and we used the spare room for the stereo and the computer.
Now I do thankfully.
When I was growing up, I mostly shared with my sister and our older brother had his own room. One time, when we were 8, 7, and 3, all of us shared a room. And from ages 16 to 18, I finally had my own bedroom for the first time.
As for my own kids, they’ve sometimes shared, depending on finances. Right now, the two oldest that are still at home have their own rooms, and the little girls share a room. (We converted the living room to a nursery. It’s adjacent to the master, and we use the den anyway.) If we still live here when the Boy leaves for college, we’ll probably keep the little girls together in what’s now the 11-year-old’s room, move her to The Boy’s room, and reclaim the living room. Or they may all have their own rooms.
The comments about family members moving in reminded me of the time my paternal grandparents moved in for a while - I’m pretty sure it would have been after my grandfather had a stroke, so it would have been in the late 50s - definitely before 1961 because that’s when the 4th sib was born.
Anyway, my grandparents got the room I shared with my sister, and my folks put our bunkbed in the same room with my brother’s crib. I don’t recall the exact dimensions, but I think the room was roughly 7’X9’. We were all preschoolers at the time so modesty wasn’t an issue, but I bet bedtimes were a riot for Mom!!
Did I mention that we only had one bathroom in that house?? Good times…
I shared a room with my brother for a couple of years after my parents divorce. That would have been 10-12 for me and 6-8 for him. By the end of that time it was getting super annoying and I think had a life long negative impact on our relationship.
I grew up it what eventually became a four bedroom home after an addition was built, but six of us lived there so on and off over the years my bother and I shared a room and my two sisters shared a room.
My wife grew up in a two bedroom house, and shared a room with her sister for the whole time.
We have a two bedroom house, but just one child, so she has always had a bedroom of her own.
46 - grew up in the SW Burbs of Chicago. I had my own room, my brother had his own room, and all my childhood friends had their own rooms. Except for the closest neighbors family (5 boys so there were two boys to a room and one for the littlest.)
I shared a room with my brother and sister for the first couple of years, then my sister until 8 or so. I generally liked it, especially at night.
We’ve just survived the first night of my 2 girls sharing a room (2 1/2 and 6 months), and everyone slept until 6, yay! Only a 2 bedroom house so we didn’t have a choice, but I think it will be fun for them too.
I shared a room with my brother until I was about 15 and he was 13. My older sister, four years my senior and the only girl, always had her own room.
I’m one of three, and we all had our own rooms for several years but none of us had our own room for our entire childhood. I’m the oldest, and shared a room with my next younger sibling for two or three years. We moved after my youngest sibling was born and lived for nine years in a house with four bedrooms. At some point during that period my two younger siblings decided they’d prefer to share a bedroom and have the other room as a playroom. They continued to room together when we moved into a three bedroom house (this wasn’t deliberate, we moved into an area with more expensive housing and couldn’t afford a 4-bedroom). Things were reshuffled when I went away to college.
ETA: Oh, I’m 31 years old. As for friends, my childhood best friend shared a room with her sister until their parents divorced. The room that had been used as her father’s office then became her sister’s room.
Heh…
Shared with younger brother until he moved downstairs to my older bro’s old room. (I’m 34 from MA FWIW)