NBR Bedrooms!

bacorrea · February 2017

This stems from me looking at rental houses 24/7 lately, but question:

If you live in a multi-level house, is your bedroom on a different floor from your kids?

I can't help it, but it REALLY bothers me to think about being on a different floor than the kids. I'm not really high anxiety about anything but this. For instance I just looked at a tri-level home and the master is on the third floor and the other bedrooms are on the first.

So am I super weird? How does it/will it work for you?

mamatowildones · February 2017

I'm not much help because I'm with you. We are currently looking to move to a bigger home and I automatically rule out any houses with a 3rd or 4th bedroom downstairs. I want us all on the same level. When the kids are older that would change my opinion. Maybe the oldest could have the downstairs bedroom. But I'm talking like teenage years or later

nda_roxybabe · February 2017

When we looked at houses this is something that turned me off. I think it'll be fantastic once theyre teenagers, but traipsing a floor (or two?!) for middle of the night stuff? No thanks!

NotAPlaya-JustCrushAlot · February 2017

I wouldn't like the kids on a different floor either. Especially once a toddler moves out of the crib, I wouldn't want them navigating stairs in the dark. We still have a baby gate in front of our stairs to keep the 3 year old from going down at night and I don't think she'd ever try it unless it was by accident.

hp_momma · February 2017

It would be a turn off for me, especially two floors up! We also still have a babygate up at the top of our stairs and DD2 is almost 3. But it gives me peace of mind at night that she can't get downstairs by herself while we are sleeping.

CeCe8579 · February 2017

We just looked at a house with the master downstairs and I love the house but don't know if I can get past that.

MoshiMoshi7 · February 2017

When we looked at houses, I automatically ruled out any with master's on a different level. The idea of little ones navigating the stairs in the dark gives me anxiety. And I am definitely not traipsing up and down the stairs during middle of the night wake ups/sickness/nightmares. The house we settled on has two rooms upstairs plus the master and a guest bedroom in the basement. If we end up having three, two of them will share until they're old enough to take the basement room.

pshaortao · February 2017

We got a 2 story home (because most houses in the area are 2 floors). The master bedroom is on the first floor and the other three bedrooms are on the second. I plan to stay in the nursery with the baby for the first six months (just like I did with DD) and see how it goes after. We have a guest room on the second floor so I can stay in there after the six months have passed if needed.

DD is still in her crib at 2.5yo and is showing no signs of wanting to move out of the crib (she refuses to after an attempt that led to a scary fall). Whenever she is ready to switch, we have a light at the end of the hall that we can keep on overnight if she decides to get up, and we will baby gate the top of the stairs as well for additional safety.

We are hoping this house will end up being our forever home, so if that ends up being the case, it will be nice when we're older.

inomniaparatus2 · February 2017

FTM so not much help but our master is on the first floor. We are planning on keeping LO in our room for the first 6 months or so and then she will be upstairs. It would have been nice to have all on one floor but not a deal breaker for us. My parents went up and down and it's only for the first few years so it's hard to turn down the perfect house and location for one thing. Not everyone thinks so but for us it's fine.

Kipperoo · February 2017

We are all on one floor, but that was just luck with the house that we found. It's nice, but it wouldn't have been a total deal breaker if the rooms were on different levels. When we were looking at houses, we figured it was unlikely that a little one would be navigating stairs alone at an age that was young enough that we would need to worry. 2 years into our house, our 2.5 yo is still in a crib and has never ventured out of his room alone. So, I get the caution, but I wouldn't have let it stop me if a house was otherwise perfect.

psherman42wwsa · February 2017

Our current house has the master on the first floor and my son is on the 2nd floor. Due to this he remained in our room until he turned 1. It took some getting used to but its fine now although its not my first choice. We are in the process of building a new house and all the bedrooms will be on the same level which I prefer so that I can get baby #2 in his room earlier.

WombThereItIs · February 2017

We are all on the same floor right now but with the move this summer who knows what we will end up with. Having had a shitty sleeper in my first kid I am not thrilled about the idea of trudging upstairs 4-8 times a night for a year but maybe it will be a great way to lose the baby weight, haha.

Add me to the 2 year old still in a crib club. We may switch him to a bed when we move (he will be 2.5 ish) and just have one mega life change all at once with moving, new bed, and a new baby. I'll probably gate the upstairs at that point.

ChristinaWild · February 2017

We live in a house that is set up that way, and while it's not ideal it is nice that to have all the kid stuff upstairs. During the first few months, the baby stayed in the master downstairs. When we decided to move him into his own room, I slept in the guest room upstairs until we decided to sleep train. We're planning on doing the same this time. We have gates at both the top and bottom of the stairs that are really sturdy.. Once DS is out of a crib and in a real bed, the plan is to set a monitor on a table near the stair well so that if he should get up in the middle of the night and start wandering, I can hear him! It helps, also, that my husband is an insomniac and is usually upstairs in the media room until about 2-3 am each night.

Louise_Belcher · February 2017

I live in a ranch so everything is on one floor except the playroom in the basement and in my opinion that is the easiest. Having a master on a floor lower then the floor that the children are on would not be a deal breaker for me, but your example of a master multiple floors up from the kids would be a deal breaker. I know I would have a hard time knowing that someone could get into my house and my bedroom wouldn't be the first one they happen upon. I am aware this makes me sound a tad crazy, especially because the small town I live in is basically pleasantville.

bacorrea · February 2017

Louise_Belcher said:

I live in a ranch so everything is on one floor except the playroom in the basement and in my opinion that is the easiest. Having a master on a floor lower then the floor that the children are on would not be a deal breaker for me, but your example of a master multiple floors up from the kids would be a deal breaker. I know I would have a hard time knowing that someone could get into my house and my bedroom wouldn't be the first one they happen upon. I am aware this makes me sound a tad crazy, especially because the small town I live in is basically pleasantville.

Haha no!! That's what I think too. Like dude my kids could be kid napped and I wouldn't even know! (Except I would, I have two giant dogs) or what if there was a fire and I couldn't get to their floor?! Plus you have the whole falling down the stairs in the middle of the night.

vrj0522 · February 2017

We are all on the same level and I wouldn't do it otherwise unless kids were older. I would hate going up and down stairs in the middle of the night, especially on nights when I had to do it multiple times.

kat81 · February 2017

We are all on the same floor and plan to keep it that way until the teenage years, in which someone might have the playroom as their bedroom (until then at least two kids will need to share at all times.)

At their current ages I would be fine with being on a separate level from them if needed. They haven't had overnight troubles/nightmares in a long time, and when DS had these last year at age 5 he was absolutely competent enough to move around the house, even in the dark, if he had needed to (shortly after this time he woke up a few times in the middle of the night and went to the playroom downstairs to play! at like 3am!!)

When my older two were toddlers, we lived in a single-level apartment (DS) and a ranch (older DS and DD until she was almost 2 when we moved here.) That is really the best when you have an under-2-yr-old, and even a younger 2 yr old. Now everyone is fully competent with the stairs and DD was nearly there when we moved to this house, but MAN was it nice to basically have no stairs in our prior homes in the baby/toddler phase. I am really not looking forward to putting up gates in this home and worrying about whether the gate is sufficiently safe (or even closed--I could see an older kid operating it and forgetting to close it properly). I know that has nothing to do with the sleeping arrangement question, but I just wanted to point out that ranches and similar homes are great for daytime and nighttime when you have a baby or toddler.

kat81 · February 2017

Louise_Belcher said:

I live in a ranch so everything is on one floor except the playroom in the basement and in my opinion that is the easiest. Having a master on a floor lower then the floor that the children are on would not be a deal breaker for me, but your example of a master multiple floors up from the kids would be a deal breaker. I know I would have a hard time knowing that someone could get into my house and my bedroom wouldn't be the first one they happen upon. I am aware this makes me sound a tad crazy, especially because the small town I live in is basically pleasantville.

I think this is a very good point. It's one thing to be on different levels, but worse IMO for the master room to be the one far away (by two levels!) from any entry/exit point and the kids to be near that. Not just for break-ins, but because your curious kids might decide to escape themselves.

NotAPlaya-JustCrushAlot · February 2017

I'd also add that gates could be helpful in a ranch style depending on your kid. One of my friend's kid's went downstairs, into the pantry, climbed up on something, grabbed a snack, and brought it back upstairs to her parents bedroom. I can see something similar happening without the stairs too. DD wouldn't go on any adventures, but some kids might.

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