room advice

[Anonymous]

Some background... 2 kids, both boys, 5 & 2.

When DS2 arrived, we kept DS1 in the smaller room because we didn't want another transition (crib to bed, new sibling, etc). We also asked him if he wanted to switch and we said no.

DS2 now has significantly larger room than DS1, and it JUST occurred to DS1 that there is some injustice in this.

Did anyone else find themselves in this situation? And if so, how did you handle?

Bonus related question... when did your children (if ever) show interest in decorating their own rooms?

This all partly came up because the 5 year old still has forest friend decal stickers on his wall and it feels too babyish to me. He hasn't complained about that though.

[Anonymous]

The 5 year old has a point. I’d switch rooms when he turns 6. That way DS #2 had that room for 3 years and now it was his turn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 5 year old has a point. I’d switch rooms when he turns 6. That way DS #2 had that room for 3 years and now it was his turn.

Interesting idea. It does seem like if we are going to switch, we should do it while the young one doesn't really know any better.

[Anonymous]

Someone will always have the smaller room. My son is the oldest and he always had the smaller room. His sister once asked if he wanted to switch and he said no, he liked his room - it felt cozy.

Fair does not mean equal.

I never ever wasted money redecorating a kid's bedroom until they asked. And even then, I waited until they were asking for the same thing consistently for several months.

[Anonymous]

Nursery (crib), big boy (or big girl) room (we did twin trundles for sleep overs) and teen room (queen beds, as sleepovers happen in the teen hangout zone in the basement).

When 4-5 months pregnant, moved child #1 into big boy room - I gave 2 choices for themes, child picked. He was there for many months before child #2 was born and went into the old nursery.

At ages 2 and 4 we did a renovation, child #1 stayed in their room, child #2 moved into our old master (nursery became a walk in closet in our new master bedroom). Child #2's room is much bigger, but they don't care and never did. As teens, they don't spend much time in their rooms except for sleeping - all in the basement (sectional, large screen tv, video games, pool table, etc, etc).

[Anonymous]

I would not switch. You aren’t actually going to switch every three years until college, so that’s a silly rationale. Someone has to have the smaller room, so why not the older one?

[Anonymous]

I’d switch, the younger one will have the place to himself as a teen and can decide then if he wants the bigger room. The little one will be clueless generally about the switch.

[Anonymous]

Careful setting a precedent now that the oldest always gets what is biggest, newest, etc. You can always flip the older kid to the bigger room later but it will be hard to ask him as a teenager to switch to the smaller room.