Saturday, July 24, 2010

Our Current Debate - Kids Rooms

We have three children. We have two bedrooms for those three children. Therefore, each of them will not have their own room just yet - until the day we move into a bigger house if that ever happens.

When I was about six months pregnant with Gabriel, I decided to search for bunk beds for Caleb and Sarah (who were then 4 and 2). Luckily, a sweet friend of my sister gave me a nice set, and it worked out perfectly in what was then Caleb's room. That room became a shared room between Caleb and Sarah, and the crib remained in what is now Gabriel's room.

Almost two years has passed, and now Gabriel sleeps best on the bottom bunk with Sarah (it's a full-sized bed on bottom). The three of them have been sleeping in that room for a few months now (which prompted the take down the crib post I wrote two weeks ago).

But I have always wanted a girl room and a boy room. I would love to turn the bunk bed room into a boy room and make the other room into a girl room. I think it would be great for one room to look like this...

















...and the other room to look like this...















Great idea, right? Yeah, I thought so, too.

But Josh would prefer to leave the current, bunk bed room as a sleeping/get ready room (bed and dressers only) and turn the other room into a play room. This has created a little bit of debate among us - well, not bad enough to make him sleep on the couch or anything! We both like our own idea, though.

I can totally see where he's coming from. The fact of the matter is, even if we did create a girl room for Sarah, the likelihood of her sleeping there is probably slim to none. The three of them love being together, especially at bed time. Josh thinks it would create only one messy room if one of them was the play room. Good idea in theory. I wonder if this is possible?

Still...I just would love for Sarah to finally have something girly. It's always been pretty neutral around here.

It's certainly not that she's asking for her own room.

So I don't know.

I wonder what to do.


21 comments:

Ashley said...

I must weigh in and say that we have all four kids (3 boys and a girl) in one bedroom - a get ready room like Josh said. The other room is a playroom and I. LOVE. IT. The bedroom is always presentable, and the playroom...well...let's just say we can shut the door! :0) No, seriously, it's so nice to have things organized and the mess contained to one room. For now all the kids want to be together anyway. When my daughter gets old enough to need her own room (for modesty issues), we'll move her to the other room, and hopefully by then we won't have so many toys anyway, as they'll be older.

Let me know what you decide!

Wendy said...

Good luck with your decision. What caught my eye was the boys' room picture you posted. When I was tossing the idea of what to paint our spare room for our future foster children, I ran across that picture and loved it! Isn't that funny? And just to throw in my two cents...you know eventually she'll want/need her own room, being the only girl and all. (Coming from my own personal experience). Good luck!

Miller Racing Family said...

Wow, that is a tough one as you both have great points. It would probably be so much easier if the kiddos were wanting their own room. I do love the girly room idea, the curtain is so cute. Hope you get the problem solved and there is no couch sleeping, lol.

thechattymommy said...

I like what Ashley said.
I guess just consider how long you are willing to let your daughter share a room with your sons for modesty issues and then decide if it is worth it to have to change the room in x amount of years.
We have a girls room and a boys room and they are both messy a lot, so I see Josh's point.
But the girls room has two parts- a front where they sleep and the back where they play - thinking the front would stay clean, but it still doesn't!
I love your choices of rooms- beautiful!

Jaimee said...

Well Chrissy I am like you I love an adorable girls room and a rough and tumble boys room, but at this point we are doing the bedroom and playroom theory at our house.

Unknown said...

Maybe you could give her a corner of the room and "Girlie it up"? Then the other room could be a play room.

Lolly Jane said...

Hi Chrissy,

Found ya at NFF from TrendyTreehouse. I'm your newest follower, please follow me back. :)

I have 4 kids myself, 2 boys 2 girls. I TOTALLY get your dilema! I agree with you, personally. That's my 2 cents, lol!

Take it easy, Kelli ;)

Jamie said...

We're sorta having this dilema...but a little different. I think I have to go with Josh on this one...at least for the time being. Until your daughter is older and "needs" her own room it would be nice to have a play room and a sleeping room. I hate all the toys in my living room but I also hate having my daughter mess up her room...wish I had a "play" room. I also hear that kids sleep better if they don't "play" where they sleep (they're not distracted, etc). SO, do whatever you think is best, you're the MOM!! But you can always get the girl room for your dd when she gets a little older and needs her own space. I think I'll be posting on this subject soon too, I need advice for our little dilema! Can't wait to see what you decide!

Amanda said...

We were all girls in my family and so for years (until we moved into a five bedroom house) we had a sleep room and a play room. It worked really well for us. I only have one and so we have never really thought about it because his room is for sleep and toys.

Nel said...

Me personally... we will hopefully some day have a boys room and a girls room :o)
I think it's good to share a room but I also think that boys need their own room and so do girls.
But I totally see what you are saying! Either way.
Oh - I so love the 2 rooms you picked out too ;o)

Causey Fam said...

you could leave it as is for now...who knows, maybe Sarah will have a sister to share with in the future ;o) Hee hee!

carissa said...

well, little girl rooms are always so adorably cute!!! but it would be a bummer if you created one for her and then she just wanted to be with her bro's in the other room. tough decision!

My So Called Life said...

This is such a debate in any household. My two boys share a room and we will soon have the upstairs finished. I wanted to have a sleeping room and playroom. Although my husband thinks that the boys need seperate rooms if we have the room. So goodluck!

Anonymous said...

I only have one child, a girl, but we have a playroom and a bedroom. I love it! It is nice to have a place for shelves to fill with toys. Her bedroom is for sleeping and her books only. For Anna that is great because if she had lots of toys to play with at bedtime I don't think she would ever go to sleep.

Good luck with your decision. No matter what you choose to do it will be what is best for your family!

Cameron said...

I think those 2 rooms are super cute, but I must say I kinda agree with your husband. If you couldn't necessarily get your daughter to sleep in the other room anyway, a play room might be pretty great! Hope you all figure out something that makes everybody happy!!!

Jess said...

I think it sounds like Josh has the idea for now. (Sorry....I don't mean to be picking sides!) I'm sure at some point Sarah is going to want her own room and when that times comes you can go hog wild with the girly stuff!

Chrissy said...

There are far too many of you taking my husband's side! ;o)

Kelly said...

My hubby and I had a similar debate but it was between an office and a playroom! In the end, he lost his office space and the kids got a playroom. Fast forward a few years and it's now a shared space between office/playroom. I always say we're one room short! Oh well, just happy to have a roof over our heads :)

Good luck with your compromise!

Felicia said...

We too have a 3 bedroom house. Now granted we have 3 girls, so having a gender based room isn't an issue. Of our 3 bedrooms we have ours, the "bed" room and the clothes/dressers room. Our oldest have always shared a room and wouldn't have it any other way. (at this point anyway) When I was pregnant with Natalee, we moved into this house. We older 2 slept in the same room with their dresser and we made the 3rd into a nursery for Natalee! It stayed this way until Natalee was just about 15-18 months...I think! Anyway Natalee insisted on sleeping with her sisters. SO finally after months of Natalee sleeping on a pallet on the floor, we decided to take the crib down and put Natalee into her toddler bed in the girls' room. We moved it out the dresser and the room became the "BED" room and the other the dresser/clothes room!

We dont have the issue of a playroom, because we have another room at the other end of the house that is the playroom.

If I was in this situation, I would probably make her a corner or something the "bed" room that is girlie and make the other room into a playroom. I wish mine had a door to close when its messy, but it works! As they grow older and the toys start to dwindle, you could consider moving her...I would let her be a part of the decorating and decision making! It might prompt her to want to make it her own space!

Good luck with your decision! In the end it will all work out!

Felicia said...

WOW I should of previewed that before I posted it...so many mistakes! Sorry about that!

Kelley said...

Forgive me if I'm stepping over a line, but I'm always curious about this issue and how people draw conclusions about it. I'm a big believer in modesty and privacy as I'm sure that you are. While I find it impossible to keep bottoms completely covered during the potty training years, it's my hope that my kids go many year before learning about the difference between boy and girl bodies.

There was a time not so long ago that my three shared one room in our two bedroom home, and I hated having two genders in one room, even at ages 1, 3 and 7. We made a huge curtain that blocked off part of the room for my son. I can't quite understand why anyone wouldn't separate genders given the option... even government housing requires a room for each gender. Maybe I'm just extreme???

In any case, I'm all for the girly room, and the one you have here is SO cute!

Post a Comment