[name]Just[/name] had a thought - We have a 4 bed house and will shortly have 7 kids - ahh! At the moment my 14yr old daughter has her own room, my sons (7 and 5yrs) share and my 2yr old daughter has her own. I’m now expecting triplets… We can’t afford to move and I can’t really fit 4 in one room so… I know the obvious would be to move the girls in together but my oldest was an only child for 7yrs and has always had her own space. She’ll be starting her GSCEs soon and I’m not sure sharing a room with a 3/4yr old would be productive… What would you do!!!
That’s a difficult situation. I’d agree that it wouldn’t be a great idea to move a young child into your oldest daughter’s room when she’s been used to having her own for so long, and that a four year old would probably annoy her a lot when she’s trying to do her homework, revise et cetera.
Still costly, but nowhere near so much as moving house (and it should add value to your house, so one day you’d get some return on this) would be to convert your attic, if you have one. Actually, I once read about a family who had had a basement built onto their house, and I remember being surprised that it wasn’t that much more expensive than converting an attic, although 1) of course, that’s still a fair amount of money and 2) I’m not a building expert, but I imagine it wouldn’t be possible on some houses, depending on the nature of the foundations et cetera.
In a year or so, when your youngest is three, would it be at all possible to move her into the boys’ room? As they’re still young, I don’t think different genders sharing a room would be an issue, and although it still isn’t ideal, I feel like boys aged around 8 and 6 would be a lot less resentful of a little sister invading their space than a teenager would, and there would be a lot less problems such as widely different bed times. When the children get older and it starts to become an issue, you could do a bit of a shuffle - if one of the triplets is a boy, you could swap your youngest and him once the triplets are 2/3, and better able to share a room with older children without disturbing them.
Apologies for just throwing ideas at you! [name]Auburn[/name]
I think that everyone in the house should share in in order to help out. Triplets is a BIG change. I would move the girls together, but make a deal where the oldest gets to remodel the room to her liking. Also, I would make a deal with her to put aside a chunk of every day that is considered her quiet time. During which the younger daughter will play elsewhere and not disturb the older one.
She probably won’t like this deal, but you have to look at the whole picture.
Thankyou for the ideas everyone! Converting the attic is a fab idea - DH agrees. Problem being I’m 26 weeks now and I don’t really want the house turned into a building site when they could arrive anytime. That’ll have to be a long term solution! Was all ok when it was the 5 kids plan… They would have fitted fine!
We thought of this far too late. Looks like they’ll be sleeping in our room for the time being! The boys room is too small to put our youngest in as well. My sister is also sleeping on the sofa at the moment to help out with the kids as in my whale-like state I can’t do much!
Although, maybe I could turf DH out of his office (downstairs) and put the oldest down there - I think that’s big enough to just about squeeze a bed?! Then we could have her room for the triplets.
It will be easier to handle a construction site while you’re pregnant than after you have three infants!
(In case you hadn’t thought of it quite this way. I wish someone had pointed it out to me - even though it seems obvious - when my husband wanted to move and I said I didn’t want to move house while I was pregnant. Packing and unpacking pregnant would have been a lot easier than with a 2 month old!)
I think the idea of moving your oldest into the office makes more sense than having her share her room for the first time as a teenager. Then the construction in the attic could either be for a bedroom (maybe if the triplets are all the same gender?) or an office/extra room. And DH could maybe use the attic as an office even without much work (much easier than it could be used as a bedroom I mean).
gwensmom - that is a very good point! Bless you - did you have to move with a 2 month old?? [name]Feel[/name] sorry for you! I was thinking more of waiting until they are a year or so old then look into converting it… Although we live in an old listed cottage so I’m not sure that would be allowed - will have to find out! I have been told they could arrive anytime (although we’d obviously prefer them to stay in as long as possible). I’ll have a chat with our oldest and see what she wants to do - she has a choice: move in with [name]Soph[/name] or move downstairs to a much smaller room. I can’t see there being too much fuss: she’s been a brill help sorting the boys in the morning and helping with the cooking etc. I just don’t want [name]Soph[/name] interrupting her studying - She’s just way to easily distracted! hmm tricky one - I’ll leave it upto her. We could prob oust DH into the shed! Poor guy!
[name]Hi[/name], Thanks for the ideas and advice! My oldest has moved downstairs and we have her room for the triplets. Eventually we will move [name]Mary[/name] in with [name]Soph[/name] and [name]Edward[/name] and [name]William[/name] will share… Anyway it all works out!
araminta - the short answer is that we don’t… We have a volvo estate which seats 7 and a fiesta. [name]Will[/name] have to look into getting a 9+ seater minivan at some point but for the moment we’ll be in 2 cars. The triplets are coming home from the NICU on [name]Monday[/name] so it hasn’t been an issue so far and they won’t be going anywhere very often at the beginning anyway. Wish us luck!!
I have your car solution problem! We are in the same boat with car seating. We have five with two on the way. We currently own a suburban which seats eight…we have been told you can have a seat installed in the back that faces backwards, great for older kids! It does take out your cargo room but makes traveling in one car possible again!
Thanks, our volvo already has the rear facing seats in the boot - It technically seats 5 in the main car. We are coping with not all going everywhere at the same time!! We are in the process of buying a 9 seater minivan - we’ll need boot space for 2 double pushchairs soon… At the moment they are all small enough to go in the same pram!