Sharing a Room

My boys share a room. (It's not as nice as the room above, though I would love to do something like that for them someday.) They've shared a room since Liam was kicked out of our bedroom when he was about a year old. It was tough going at first. Liam wasn't the greatest sleeper. Okay, that's a little bit like saying that Godzilla wasn't exactly small. And there were trying times at first. My Mom always laughs as she imitates a 4 year old Xander who said, "Can't you get that kid to be quiet?" to her with his hand over his ears when she babysat one evening.

In our old house, there was no choice. We had three bedrooms and one of them was an office for my work-at-home husband. The kids adjusted to each other and even draw comfort from having a sibling close by.

So my boys think that they should always share a room.

Our current house has enough rooms for the boys to have their own rooms, plus for office space for each of the adults in our home.  Imagine our surprise when we told them that they could each have their own rooms and they protested! There was no way they were going to sleep apart. The world would end if they had separate rooms. What were we thinking?

So they share a room here too. Except that Xander is now old enough that his bedtime is changing. He's no longer tired as early as his little brother. We would like to institute different bedtimes and to give Xander a half hour to read at the end of the day.

So the question is before "the courts" again. We'll see what happens. For those of you who have navigated this split before or have suggestions to keep them together, but give Xander his growing privileges, please speak up.