Siblings Sharing A Room

[noitsmebecky]

I have a 10 year old boy and a 3 year old girl. I got divorced last year and when my lease was up around last February, I moved into a two bedroom apartment. I had hoped to move into a bigger place but I'm just not quite comfortable enough with my savings to take on a few extra a hundred a month in rent right now. The main reason being my ex and I still have a car in both of our names-he was allegedly making payments but I found out he was behind (shocker) so I called in a voluntary repossession. I know I'll have to pay that off so I wanted to keep my bills low for one more year while I finish school, build up savings and deal with that mess. So that said, I renewed my lease in our two bedroom for one more year.

I feel terrible bc I know my son wants his own space. They have a loft bed so they each have their own bed and the room is a decent size. On weekends, DD usually sleeps with me so DS gets a reprieve and she does go to bed before him. I'd move her bed into my room but I get up around 3am for work and she's a light sleeper. The problem with that is when she's up she's up and even though the sitter is there at that time, she's still noisy and wakes him up but in their room, she at least sleeps until it's time to get up.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas for organizing a shared bedroom? I just feel like there's just bins of stuff lining the walls. I was hoping that maybe if I made it a little more organized it would help. Probably not, but i'm just trying to make the best out of a rough situation for the next year.

**Another option would be actually moving MY room into the living room. I mean, I don't have people over that often anyway. I have a futon that I could use and he could just use my bed. that way they'd each have their own room.

[CandTmom]

I would be in the living room and the kids would have their own rooms.

[leadfoot40]

Do you have a picture of the room? Are you just looking for ways to better organize the room?

[Linda_Runs]

It is a hard problem. Your 10 year old definitely needs his space at that age.

[caustib]

Is it big enough for a room divider?

[HaggardWitch]

Would you consider letting your son live with his Father? Is that option available?

[noitsmebecky]

It is a hard problem. Your 10 year old definitely needs his space at that age.

I know. And 99% of the time he's so good with his sister. I mean, she's not terrible at night anymore. She does go to bed without issue. And during the day he can go in there and be by himself. She's not constantly up his butt-most days, anyway. But still, I can't wait until 2020. I think I'll be able to at least rent a house if not buy one.

[noitsmebecky]

Is it big enough for a room divider?

Maybe? It's a decent sized room but they have a loft bed and then the dresser they have is gigantic. It's rectangular so its not super wide but it's pretty deep. Make sense? I could probably find some cheaper furniture that would fit better with a divider if I saved for a few months but at that point, it's less than a year till the lease is up, you know? But i could play around with that idea and see if I could make it work.

[noitsmebecky]

Would you consider letting your son live with his Father? Is that option available?

Absolutely not. My ex isn't stable. He had an apartment in the same complex as me and was evicted in less than a year. He is currently living with his grandfather about 45 minutes away and has an air mattress. Its a 3 bedroom apartment but his grandfather only lets him use one room (I can't figure out if they don't want him there long term, if if they're just waiting for him to ask for another room-they're really strange so Idk).

[Linda_Runs]

It is a hard problem. Your 10 year old definitely needs his space at that age.

I know. And 99% of the time he's so good with his sister. I mean, she's not terrible at night anymore. She does go to bed without issue. And during the day he can go in there and be by himself. She's not constantly up his butt-most days, anyway. But still, I can't wait until 2020. I think I'll be able to at least rent a house if not buy one.

Hang in there! Sounds like you are doing your very best and deeply care.