Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-belker!kaiser From: kaiser@belker.DEC (Pete Kaiser HLO2-1/N10 225-5441) Newsgroups: net.kids Subject: Kids sharing rooms Message-ID: <31@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Wed, 14-Nov-84 12:35:36 EST Article-I.D.: decwrl.31 Posted: Wed Nov 14 12:35:36 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 16-Nov-84 01:47:16 EST Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: DEC Engineering Network Lines: 32 There were six kids in my natal family, and never enough rooms. Until I was 10 I shared a room with my older-by-2-years sister; then we moved, and there were more rooms, and she got one of her own, and my next-youngest brother moved in to share a room with me. There was some struggling from time to time, but on the whole I enjoyed sharing a room with him. Mom and Dad let us arrange the room however we wanted, and every now and then we'd reconfigure the floor plan. I assumed that I'd be the next to get a room alone, probably when the next baby came. It seemed to happen at pretty regular 2-year inter- vals. But the next baby came (he turned out to be the last), and instead of me, my younger sister got a room to herself. It was unfair. I thought so then and I think so now. I shared a room with my next-younger brother until I left home, but it wasn't as much fun after that. He and I are the farthest apart in age (3-1/2 years, where all the other intervals are nearly 2 years), so I was still sharing a room with a 14-year-old when I was 18 -- and whenever I came home to visit. But much earlier the friction had far outstripped the fun. For instance, I went to bed much later than he did, and got up much earlier. And I liked to sleep in temperatures that nearly froze him solid, which I achieved by leaving the window open in winter. Even now I think it wouldn't have been as bad if my parents had been even- handed -- say, if everyone had had to share rooms. But two things stand out to me, and I hope I've learned from them: (1) my parents weren't fair, and I knew it; and (2) they were oblivious to my distress. Kids are persons with their own motives and feelings. This applies to sharing rooms as well as to other things. ---Pete