Age to go into a bunk?

We are considering moving into a shack for around a year and building a house. So space will be an issue. Even if we don't go ahead with that, i would like both kids to share a room and our bedrooms are small ish.

dd is currently in a king single bed. DH likes the idea of bunks for the kids. i have been looking at the ikea loft bed to use as a bunk over the top, but have it facing opposite direction, so shaped like the letter L.

i'm not sure if they are too young for bunks, i know they will both want to climb up. DS has already climbed a fence :o. Having the king single, they could both sleep in it and having it stick out gives greater area to catch them if they fall.

What do you think? Way too young or could it work? (DS will be around 18 months and DD will be 3 years)

For me, I think 3 is too young. We've only recently bought bunks for DS and he is 5.5 yrs.
At 3 he was still only little (compared to now) and with him getting out to get to the toilet in the middle of the night I would have worried about him getting down/falling.

I was looking for a lowline bunk the other week - and one store told me its recommended that minimum age is 6. I don't know the source of the recommendation.

That said I still made the purchase for the same reason - space. DD1 will be on top and she has just turned 5, DD2 is almost 2.

I have piece of mind as this lowline bunk is much shorter than a regular tall bunk and I will be hovering and undertaking mummy surveillance to ensure there is no monkey business going on when lights go out!

Would you consider a trundle bed perhaps?

aaahhh, a trundle bed could work in the 'shack'. good idea!

i was looking at the lowline bunk, but i think the bottom of the mattress was still 1.45M high, so plus 20cm ish for mattress. they have a rail all around but maybe that s just another climbing tool :think:

Yes the recommended age for bunk beds (for child to be in top bunk) is 6yrs.

Is it bad to top and tail kids in a king single?

If they're okay with it then I don't see why it would be an issue.

:

---

Is it bad to top and tail kids in a king single?

---

Not at all in my opinion, my two would love to share and if DS would settle down and not act up would do it. The bottom half of her bottom bunk is just storage so would be a good use of space and I suspect we will end up doing it. We have normal bunk but I am not sure she will be ok to climb down in middle of night for a while as she is not very sure footed but could be trusted.

Never! Only because making the bed on the top bunk is a PITA!

I don't think there is anything wrong with kids sharing a bed or top and tailing

Never! Only because making the bed on the top bunk is a PITA!

I don't think there is anything wrong with kids sharing a bed or top and tailing

At this age anything goes. Could you get a double for them to share rather than KS? I'm thinking they might wake each other up in a king single.

:

---

Is it bad to top and tail kids in a king single?

---

My 3 older kids share a double bed - they sleep along it length ways lol

Really does depend on the children. We had ds in the top bunk before he was 3. We 'trained' him to climb up and down safely and he knew to wait for us. Once he was confident he was fine getting himself up at night etc. I don't recall any real issues with dd1 climbing up. They both understood that they weren't to play up there.

Dd2 at 19 months confidently climbs up there now! Tho we generally try to stop her heh.

Our kids don't seem to be silly with it. They're all very agile and fairly sensible. But I have seen some young kids with no sense of where they are .. Fall off the edge of couches etc. so I think it really depends how you think your kids would be with it. I dunno.. Maybe cos we did it so young, there was less novelty/silliness.

Mine were 5 and 3 in bunks.

Check out bunkers if you are looking for low line bunks. I swear by mine.

I have bunks for my 5 yr old DD and 3 yr old DS. Thinking DD would sleep up top, but nope DS does. But they know they are not to play on it, and DS has no trouble getting up down in the night.

we stayed with family a few weeks ago and they had bunk camping stretchers, DS even slept on top of those.

But also don't see any issue with them sharing either. My kids do if we are on holidays, but DS likes his space to sleep, and DD likes to snuggle, so they frustrate each other if for too long sharing either a double or top and tailing.

We contemplated it but now have DS in in a trundle - it's a bit of a pain putting bedding away each day but not taking longer than making a bed. Working well for us temporarily and ours are nearly 6 and 4.

:

---

Is it bad to top and tail kids in a king single?

---

we recently had the girls for 6 months while we were in LA lying top to tail with NO worries at all. in fact they both slept so well together that we had issues when we got back and put them in the bunk bed!

Can your DD/DS climb the ladder alone confidently with little chance of falling? That for me would be the marker. Bunks usually have a barrier to stop you from falling out.

We bought Liebling a cabin bed for his 5th birthday (dull parents). When shopping for it, he struggled with the ladders for normal bunk beds, but could manage the sloped one for the cabin bed. He could do the flat ladder now, but I'm not buying him another bed.