My brothers and I shared a room until I was about 11. I technically had my own space to keep my things and change my clothes, but, every night, I would head into their room and my little brother would make room on his full sized bottom bunk.

I didn't like to sleep in my room because I didn't like to sleep alone. I was afraid of the dark and monsters and bad guys, so my little brother would always make sure the night light was on and he checked under the bed for me. (yeah, he really was that sweet!)

Because of this, I always had this picutre in my mind of my own kids sharing a room.

Lisanna and Arrow are pretty close to the same age difference as my brother and me, so it made perfect sense that they would share a room.

We had a three bedroom house when Arrow was born, and we put his crib right across from Lisanna's in a really cute room that was half pink and half blue.


We quickly realized that wouldn't work. At first, Arrow would cry and wake Lisanna up or she would cry and wake him up. Then, as they got older, they'd stay up all night talking and giggling or one would keep the other more tired child awake until they came and told. We cleared out the storage room and moved Arrow in there.

Since then, the kids have always had separate rooms.

Recently, we lost the remote for the heater in Arrow's room. In Japan, there's no central heat so you have to heat each individual room. Being that it's January, it's far too cold for Arrow to sleep in a room without a heater, so we put out a pallet and put him in Lisanna's room.

The transformation in the two kids was amazing. Fighting bedtime all but stopped, Arrow quit wetting the bed, and they woke up more rested in the morning. We had them like this for a week and then decided to make the change permanent.

Here are 3 reasons that led us to make that decision!

1. They sleep better!

This was obviously a big selling point. Ever since we switched Arrow from a crib (about a year and a half ago) we've had issues with him getting out of bed and playing with his toys. Putting him in one room with only beds and dressers fixes that problem for two reasons. Lisanna keeps him accountable (aka, she's a spy because she does NOT like to be woken up) and he doesn't have any toys to play with anyway. They're all in the playroom.

2. They're not alone.

I think just knowing that they're not alone has made a huge difference. One of the biggest bedtime fights we were constantly having with them was that they don't want to be alone. They're used to being together or being with us or being with friends. I remember the feeling. When I finally moved to my own room at 11, I was excited but a little sad that I had to sleep on my own. I remember that being the thing about marriage I was most excited about - no longer having to sleep alone! So I'm all for making the stretch of time they have to sleep without another human nearby a little shorter.