Three year old bedroom in basement - Children's Health Message Board

TannaK · 06-07-2003, 04:23 PM

My daughter has 4 children...twin girls age 5, a girl, Hannah, age 3 and a baby boy 8 months old. Before the baby was born my daughter moved the 3 year old in with her twin sisters. The twins were sleeping in a full sized bed and decided they wanted to go back to twin beds. So last week my daughter moved Hannah, the 3 year old, into a basement bedroom to make more room in the twins bedroom. I have a problem with the three year old being isolated in the basement. She's afraid to sleep down there alone. She has has potty training issues since the baby was born and I think this just sends a message that she's not important in the family. Am I completely off base or what? Any suggestions on how I should handle this? My husband and I went to talk to her about our concerns today and she thinks we're overexaggerating the whole situation.

PinkPiglet · 06-07-2003, 05:36 PM

I would have trouble with a young child in the basement just because if there's a fire she couldn't get out by herself.

My son is now in the basement (which he loves) but he's 9 and knows how to open the window and climb out if he needs to. A young child can't do that.

I hope she listens to reason before something happens. Also, if the child gets sick and is crying can she be heard upstairs??

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Pink

camden · 06-08-2003, 07:56 PM

Where is your grandson sleeping? We have 2 bedrooms upstairs, one of them is the Master bedroom. When my son was born he slept in a crib in our room then went to the bedroom across the hall. When my daughter was born she also slept in her crib in our room until she was about 2 & 1/2. We kept her in there so long because she was such a light sleeper and we figured our son would wake her up if they shared a room and my son was not ready to go to the downstairs room.

When she was 2&1/2 we put her in our son's room and they shared it for a short time until he decided he would like to sleep downstairs(he was 5).

Is there anyway that your youngest granddaughter could share a room with her brother? Perhaps the twins could use the basement room. It seems odd that your daughter didn't make the older girls continue using the full size bed so that there would be rrom for the 3yr old. Is she truly afraid to sleep down there? if not I would suggest a monitor down there. We used one for my son the first little while because he woke up crying one night and we couldn't hear him. Is it possible to have a bed in her brothers rooms for nights that she gets scared. We have an extra bed(my daughter still uses a toddler bed)in my daughters room and have told my son that if he gets scared he can come up and sleep in there(he never has)because we thought the sound of the water softener might scare him. My son also loves it if one of us lays with him for awhile every once in awhile(we don't make it a nightly habit).

These are just a few suggestions that have worked for us. Good luck!

Shmolissa · 06-09-2003, 11:14 AM

I know how you feel. We lived in a three bedroom house and the master bedroom wasn't big enough to fit even a small cradle. When my third child was on the way we had plans to make a bedroom in the basement for my oldest who is only 5. After some consideration and pushing by me my husband and I decided against this and moved into a larger house instead. I feel MUCH better about this decision.

HeyThere · 06-10-2003, 08:08 AM

There is furniture such as bunk beds and micro beds sold at IKEA. If they really wanted.

Kids need regular daylight from the windows by the sun. The first 5 years are the most important formative years.

Why don't they make the basement a play area and the shared beedroom strictly for sleeeping with bunkbed and micro bed?

Is there mechanical equipment down there how about hidden mold?

[This message has been edited by HeyThere (edited 06-10-2003).]