What are the effects of sharing a bed with a sibling? We want bunk beds, but we don't have the ceiling space. The next alternative is sharing a queen size bed.
my parents could not aford a bed for my brother and I in the first few years of our lifes. from the time I was 2 1/2 to 6 my brother and I had to share my grandmother's old bed. we are NOT gay, and the first person who said that should be reported. that was sick. just a note: for every one sugesting a day bed and trundel, my younger siblings had that and in less than a year it was ruined. kids forget to put away the bed and end up walking on it. or throwing things on it. or other things happen. another problem we had was that if one got up at night to use the restroom the one on the trundel got steped on. daybeds with trundels are not good for most kids.
The develope a closeness they might not otherwise have. My grandmother slept in the same bed with her sister and her aunt until they were adults(her aunt was their age- late addition tot he family). Imagine a 3/4 bed ( a bit small than a full sized bed) housing three teenagers? My grandmother said it taught them to get along, to learn to share and to cooperate - as in when one turned over, everyone turned over! Two kids in a queen sized bed should be just fine. yes, you will get some uptight and frankyly a bit perverted who are going to suggest that this wil promote incest. Bullhockey! My kids shared a room until they were 4 and 8 - and would have shared longer if we hadn't moved. They still share a bed when we go on vacation, even thought they complain about it - blanket hogging. I see nothing wrong with children develping a closer relationship with their sibling. Only real problems I can see is complaints of kicking, blanket hogging and a lonely child if the other spends the night at someone else's house.
I used to babysit two girls who shared a queen size bed until they were 13 and 11. Once the one girl began to menstrate, they changed the piano room (the mother taught lessons) into her own room. They both grew up to be straight A students with no real issues.
Human beings have shared beds since before we had beds, you know. You don't think we all huddled freezing and alone in separate parts of our caves, right? In fact, separate beds for families are a very new invention. Siblings sharing a bed will have no bed effects on the children, all other things being equal. It will provide security and comradarie. We did it for a few years, and it was very nice. At 10, our oldest asked for his own bed and we got it for him. (My dad grew up very very poor and shared a bed made of coats on a spring with ten siblings. ) It's so funny to read all these people stating kids must sleep alone to be healthy, or they'll never want to sleep alone. As I look around at adults, most of whom did grow up with cribs and forced night time aloneness, and I see lots of sleeping pill use and bed hopping and the 'i don't like to sleep alone' song running through everyone's minds... Meet kids' needs when they're young and they will actually become independent when they are older. Force them to act independent before they are ready, and you get a lifetime of insecurity, and, well, acting.
Nothing bad will happen. Me and my brother had bunk beds, nothing ever happened. When my mom was in the hospital with the cancer, I would sleep in my dads bed until he went to work about about midnight, then I'd go to my brothers. I refused to be in my own bed, or in my aunts or cousins. I also did this every time my mom had to go in for chemo, and when my dads lung collapsed I slept in my brothers bed. Every time there was a shooting of some kind, I slept in my brothers bed. When he was about 15 he made me sleep on the floor though. Nothing bad ever happened. I needed the security of someone I knew would be there. Everyone said terrible things because I was in his bed every night for about a month once when I was 7. I don't see the big deal unless one of the kids is a molester or something.
