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This is a sponsored post by StayMade products.  All opinions are 100% mine.

 

 

Our kids shared a room for two years, until our oldest son told me that he was ready to “move out”.   He said that he didn’t want to have to pick up after his brother anymore.  (I can understand this).  He wanted to have his own room.  (He also told me that he didn’t want any toys in his room, because he didn’t want to have to clean! haha!)

If your kids are transitioning to sharing a room, here are 3 tips.  (& then I will post 3 on transitioning to single rooms)
1- Set limits!  Our kids had “no talking” once they were in bed with the lights out.  They could “play” for 20 minutes before bed, in their room, reading books and talking on their beds.  Lights out meant no talking
2- everyone cleans!  This is a hard rule to enforce because they both blamed each other for the mess.
3- set a wake-up time.   (see my post on keeping the kids in bed later).  If one woke the other up before 7:00, they were in big trouble (No TV that day)

Like I said, it was #2 on that list that made our older son want to move out.  We have an extra room, so it wasn’t a big deal for him to move out.  We would just convert our play room into a bed room.  He was really excited, but I was sad to see that his little brother (5 years old) was sad to see his big brother (six) move out.   I wanted to share a few transition ideas & room decorating ideas…

Transitioning back to single rooms: 

1-  Plan sleep-overs!   We let our younger son sleep over in our older son’s “new” room for the first three nights.   We told him that he could do this on any weekend, as long as they didn’t have school the next day.

2-  Play up the fun aspect of having your own room… more space, quieter, clean your own mess.

3- Let them re-decorate!   I found a product, called StayMade, that I am getting for our son’s bed.  I love it!  Think of an old sleeping bag- now picture that on your child’s bed.  That’s what this is.   It is a fitted sheet, the top sheet, and the comforter & they are all connected by zippers. The comforter is made to hang over the zipper so that when everything is completely zipped up, it looks like the bed is made perfectly!

Screen Shot 2013-08-08 at 11.45.03 PMI see a few great things here:
1- my kids will get out of ‘making’ their beds every morning, so I will have some very happy kids!

Screen Shot 2013-08-08 at 11.44.32 PM

2- This might keep our 5 year old from falling out of his bed!  He falls out every night, and it just happens to be around the same time.  He doesn’t like the bed rails because he said that they make him bump his head, so we just line his floor will pillows and keep him in a low-to-the-ground bed.

3- They can tuck themselves BACK in when they get up at night to use the bathroom.

4- it will stop them from kicking off their covers all night long.  (this is especially good in the winter).  I think that I cover our kids up about 3-4 times a night!   You can mix and match different comforters with sheets, or zip in a thicker sheet during the winter-time, or a thinner comforter during the summer time.

Another bonus of separate rooms is that they won’t wake each other up if they get up at night to go to the bathroom.  When the kids had bunk beds, they were accidentally waking each other up every time that someone got up.    Before I forget- speaking of bathrooms- that bedding that I mentioned also has an accessory called the PeaPod.   Its like a big pillowcase that you sleep in and it is strictly for bed wetters (100% waterproof).  To clean up an accident, you just unzip the PeaPod and throw it into the washer, without the mattress or any of the other sheets being affected by the accident.  Plus, it comes with two in a pack, so you will have a spare for those middle-of-the-night bed changes.

SIDE NOTE that I don’t want you to miss: StayMade will be offering the product as a pre-sale on KickStarter for $85 (regular retail is $130).   I’m sure they will post about it on their Facebook page or in their youtube video

staymadeWhat tips do you have for sharing a room and transitions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there!

I’m Becky, a former elementary school teacher turned certified child development therapist and blogger. I work at home with my husband and together we are raising (and partially homeschooling) our four children in the Carolinas. I love diet coke, ice cream, and spending time with my family.

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9 Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing the bedding. I have two boys who shared a room only when they were pre-school age. Now they would never consider it. As they get older, their personalities can be so different. Mine are in a phase of not getting along at, so I’m thankful we have the space for them to have separate rooms.

    1. That’s great that they are getting along so well- I pray that ours are great friends down the road (they play pretty well now… lets hope it keeps up!!)

  2. my older two share a room and when my 2yr old is a bit more mature he’ll move in with them and the baby will take the nursery (the baby is still in with us) i do allow some talking after lights out but it has to be quiet and only for a few minutes. i like that the kids like each other and want to connect and talk before sleeping, so i figure having them nurture their relationship that way is ok as long as they’re respectful and not keeping the other awake. the staymade looks like a smart idea, i could just not justify spending that much on bedding for our family.

  3. These are really great helpful tips! Nice bedding, thanks for sharing! 🙂

  4. I think it would be great to have separate rooms for kids, but from other point, I would love to teach them live in a team, clean after, make a schedule and respect everyone’s choices.

  5. I love how portable the kit is. I like that blue,red and white for my son’s room.

  6. did staymade go out of business? It sends me to beddy’s instead. which are great but I would love the peapod so I don’t have to wait to get these for my younger twins who aren’t potty trained yet