Room Arrangements

Today was to be the day we picked up a new (to us) bed for one of our boys. It's now on hold til next week, but I thought I might post about it anyway. It's a loft bed with a desk underneath. By purchasing this bed we can set his room up in a way that his brother can join him. That way the other bedroom is freed up for foster children.

This is probably the biggest sticking point so far with our boys. They haven't been overly keen to go back to sharing a room. They have some concerns, but have conceded that it is better to do this than to not foster, which is really mature of them. They did specifically request not sharing a bunk bed though - so this is our concession to that request.

One son was concerned that he would be unable to sleep with someone else in the room. We suggested that perhaps this was a good reason to share in case he ever wanted to marry someone in the future.

They shared for years before we moved here, and mostly it went well. There was a lot of chatting when they should have been sleeping, but not a great deal of nitpicking. I do wonder if more recent nitpicking would have been magnified by sharing, or less likely to have occurred at all if they had continued sharing. I wonder if they have become less tolerant of one another and more selfish as a result of not having to share a space. I guess we will find out in time.

We won't be moving them in together until we actually start foster care. But we want to be in the position to be prepared to do it without too much drama. I think the excitement of the new bed is helping, so we may even hold off putting it up until the time comes.

I know these days there is a lot of fuss made about teens having their own rooms and the like, but realistically I don't think that is as important as is often made out. I say this knowing full well that I had my own room for most of my childhood. But most of the world shares a space, and many many children grow up sharing a space. It's part of life and part of being in a family. And I just don't think it's the end of the world to have to share a space for a few years. There will be different tensions created by this at times I'm sure, but I also think it's a good opportunity for them to learn to be more gracious with one another and to learn to cooperate a bit better.

Interesting times ahead for them, but I think it'll be ok in the long run.