who should have the bigger room? silly debate between my husband and i

[Anonymous]

we have a 2 year old son and a girl along the way (come april). we are moving into a new house soon and we are trying to determine which rooms the kids will have. One room is about 4 feet wider than the other. I told my husband that girls tend to spend more time in their room as they get older and require a little more privacy and i am getting the "you are playing favorites or you just say that because you are a female". please tell me if I am completely off or whether there are some other factors we should think about in this decision. I am not at all trying to play favorites I just remember spending a lot more time in my room than my older brother who was very active with sports, etc.

thanks!

[Anonymous]

Is one room closer to your room than the other? I kind of think the older child should get the bigger room because he will soon spend more time in his room rather than in 10 years.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure about other people, but my daughter (who is younger than my son) has FAR MORE TOYS than my son. FAR MORE. And BIGGER. Think: kitchen, princess castle, beauty vanity, bajillion stuffed animals, Barbie townhouse, table and chairs, art easel, etc. My son has a pair of sticks he likes to play with. That's about it.

[Anonymous]

You sounds totally sexist. The oldest should get the bigger room.

[Anonymous]

I'd go with the older child getting the bigger room. There have to be some perqs to being older. And you never know, they might voluntarily switch when they get older -- my brother and I did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sounds totally sexist. The oldest should get the bigger room.

Bingo. Girls do not necessarily have more stuff or end up spending more time in their rooms. This observation is based solely upon your one family's experience. My brother had a ton more stuff than we did, and he spent more time in his room that the girls.

Use age, otherwise you are favoring girls over boys. When you use age as a criterion, gender doesn't matter (because the oldest might have been either a boy or a girl, and the same for the younger).

The younger gets to inherit the larger room when the older goes away to college.

[Anonymous]

At 2 you should be getting an idea of what kind of boy you have. Always moving? Needs to be outside? Hates to be alone? Smaller room. Loves legos? Cars? Goes from 1 toy to another to another in the span of an hour? Plays quietly most of the time? Our 2yo would definitely get the bigger room (especially because he's older) and also because he's the play quietly with lots of toys type. But boy do legos and matchbox cars make a mess!
Also, I had the bigger room growing up but rarely used it since i hated to be alone. My brother, on the other hand, had crap everywhere in his room, all the time, and would spend hours up there.

[Anonymous]

We have a small room and a fairly large room. Right now the younger child (also a girl in my case) has the smaller room. Originally I thought they could share a room until they were 5 or 6, but at the moment they would just wake each other up all night long.

My plan is to institute a "swap rooms once every two years policy and make the smaller room have some added benefit, like when you move to the smaller room you get to redecorate or you get the attic as your study space or something. I figured that is the fair way to do it and it give us an incentive to freshen up the rooms every few years.

For now, I'd put the new baby in the room closest to you, or put the baby in your room and make one of the rooms a guest room. Maybe your kids will share a room for a while or you can make the small room slightly cooler with a loft bet or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sounds totally sexist. The oldest should get the bigger room.

Ditto.

[Anonymous]

I disagree with the premise, but it is not sexist to guess that girls may spend more times in their rooms.

[Anonymous]

I would put the girl in the room with the bigger closet. If the closets are the same size, then I would put the baby in the room closest to the master bedroom. And people saying the oldest must get the biggest room are clearly older siblings themselves. Younger siblings get screwed every time.

[Anonymous]

Oldest child gets the bigger room unless you're pregnant with twins, in which case they can share the bigger room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sounds totally sexist. The oldest should get the bigger room.

Bingo. Girls do not necessarily have more stuff or end up spending more time in their rooms. This observation is based solely upon your one family's experience. My brother had a ton more stuff than we did, and he spent more time in his room that the girls.

Use age, otherwise you are favoring girls over boys. When you use age as a criterion, gender doesn't matter (because the oldest might have been either a boy or a girl, and the same for the younger).

The younger gets to inherit the larger room when the older goes away to college.

Ditto.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with the premise, but it is not sexist to guess that girls may spend more times in their rooms.

Why not?

[Anonymous]

I realize this may be hard logistically sometimes (eg if one is siick and needs to sleep with a parent nearby) but I hope that when we finally move to a house one room will be used for both DCs to sleep and the larger one solely as a play room. That way they"ll hang out together. Call me an idealist but I think that will allow them to bond better esp since they are so close in age. I think this setup could work at least for the young elementary years and even if they're a boy and girl. You might have to wait till baby is one or so but after she is STTN that's what I'd do.