If your twins share a room

If your twins share a room, what do you do when they have different opinions about the sleeping environment? Our rule for the past few months has been that Sarah decides if the hall light is on; Amy decides how much the door should be open. But sometimes Amy wants the door closed completely, which means it's too dark for Sarah regardless of whether the light is on. And sometimes vice versa.

Are these things even up for discussion in your house? Or did you just have to make a parental decision and do the same thing every night?

 

QUOTE(Minette @ Jun 11 2009, 11:07 PM) [snapback]1351289[/snapback]
Are these things even up for discussion in your house? Or did you just have to make a parental decision and do the same thing every night?


Well, my 2 that share a room aren't the same age, but it's pretty much like you said. We decide and they live with it. There is a night light and some nights I close the door and some nights it's open. Depends on if DH and I will be staying up watching TV. I guess my girls just don't complain about it. ardon:

 

QUOTE(Minette @ Jun 12 2009, 03:07 AM) [snapback]1351289[/snapback]
Are these things even up for discussion in your house? Or did you just have to make a parental decision and do the same thing every night?

This! From the beginning I established the environment: fan on, light off, no nightlight, door shut, hall light on til we go to bed. The boys that are a year apart share a room and we've gone through phases of one or the other wanting to change things. I just told them (still do if they ask) that this is how we do bedtime. Done deal. They will sometimes say it's too dark but I just remind them it's dark with your eyes closed anyway and that's how your eyes should be at night! lol They drop the idea pretty quickly. If they can see, they want to play rather than sleep so we keep it dark on purpose. I say just lay down the law and they'll get used to it.

 

Alden, I am sorry you are going through this!!! UGH!!!

We don't give them any decisions. We turn on their music, their Lightning McQueen lamp and the fan and close the door! Sorry that's not much help!

If I were in your shoes, I would either make a chart with pictures - a light bulb and a door and alternate them down the page and then alternate their names next to it! Then there's NO discussion. "OH, the CHART says...it's Sarah's turn to decide on the light and Amy's turn for the door - that's what it says :shrug: "

OOF! Good luck! :hug:

 

I'm sorry you're going through this too!! We also set the ground rules. I do allow for interjections and if DH and I feel that it is reasonable, we'll allow the request. If there is loud opposition, we make the decision based on our routine. The door is usually open a crack. The nightlight is in the bathroom down the hall, not in their room and we don't have any white sound so that isn't an issue for us. Our biggest problem is that Amanda loves to sing and hum and Aidan really loves his sleep. This morning Aidan complained that Amanda kept him awake. Typically when one child is throwing a fit or requesting things that are atypical and they are relentless in the request, I remove that child from the room for a few minutes (a time-out in the hallway to diffuse the situation and hold a 1 on1 conversations). We've been successful with our insistence that the routine is decided by Daddy and Mommy and they can submit requests for consideration

Good luck!!

 

The way we deal with it is they each have their own nightlight. The door is shut and the main light off but they make the decision about their own light (they know they are not allowed to tell their sibling what to do). It's worked well for us.

If you're interested Naomi and Luke have some brilliant nightlights: these.
They come in a two pack, are re-chargable, easy to turn on/off, just the right size for little hands to hold, never get hot to touch, and give a nice, soft, warm light. We have the pink & orange combo.

 

QUOTE(dfaut @ Jun 12 2009, 02:41 PM) [snapback]1351737[/snapback]
If I were in your shoes, I would either make a chart with pictures - a light bulb and a door and alternate them down the page and then alternate their names next to it! Then there's NO discussion. "OH, the CHART says...it's Sarah's turn to decide on the light and Amy's turn for the door - that's what it says :shrug: "

The problem isn't so much who gets to decide what (we were doing OK with "Sarah decides the light, Amy decides the door"), but sometimes their desires just conflict impossibly. If Sarah wants it dark and says light off, Amy will say she needs the door wide open so she gets light from the other rooms. If Sarah wants it bright and says light on, Amy will say she wants the door completely closed, so no light gets in at all.


QUOTE(Twin nanny @ Jun 12 2009, 06:24 PM) [snapback]1352048[/snapback]
The way we deal with it is they each have their own nightlight. The door is shut and the main light off but they make the decision about their own light (they know they are not allowed to tell their sibling what to do). It's worked well for us.

If you're interested Naomi and Luke have some brilliant nightlights: these.
They come in a two pack, are re-chargable, easy to turn on/off, just the right size for little hands to hold, never get hot to touch, and give a nice, soft, warm light. We have the pink & orange combo.

I like this idea! I'll definitely look into those.

I'd rather not just say "It's supposed to be dark, it's nighttime," because they're recently started reading in their beds before falling asleep and it actually keeps them a lot calmer than they were before. So I'm all in favor of a solution that allows one of them to read while allowing the other one to go right to sleep (HAH!) if she wants to.

Thanks!

 

We have one nightlight and the door is always shut. No arguments about it.

 

We've never given them a choice. Fan on, closet light on (shines through the slats), door closed. They have a shelf of books they can read quietly, but no other toys, and usually they're both asleep within 15 minutes.

 

It's a parental decision in our house. They have a nite light and the door is closed. We don't even give them the option of changing these 2 things.