First floor master with kids?

[Bernadine]

What are your thoughts? We saw a house we like, but I'm just not sure about being on a different floor.

[isabel]

If you're thinking long term, I would be good with it. I feel weird about kids being on a lower floor than me, but I'm fine with kids being on the second floor.

It would be annoying with a baby, but that's short term, obviously. It would be perfectly fine now and DS is 16 months. He's been sleeping through the night for probably 6 months.

[ElizabethBennet]

Our 5 year old has a room downstairs while the nursery and master are upstairs. She HATES being downstairs without us there, and we won't live in another house with bedrooms on separate floors. It's been a big issue for us.

[lilmissladybug]

We have a split and we are downstairs and both kids are upstairs. Our last house we were in for 10yrs and all the rooms were on the same floor so it was hard to get used to, but I prefer them upstairs.

[Deleted]

We don't have kids yet and we've been house hunting on and off and plan to buy in 2017.  To me, I don't like the idea of a first floor master because of future kid(s).  I wouldn't want small kids on a different floor.  If I were at a different stage in life (older kids), then I may feel differently.  

I don't mind having a guest room on the first level (along with a full bath) for when my mom or guests visit.  

[speckledfrog]

That's what we have and we've had zero problems with it.

[lilac05]

Where we lived in Texas, a master on the main level was highly desirable. Since we knew we wouldn't be there forever, that's what we bought. It wasn't a major issue when our son was little, but we moved when he was still in the crib. (He was also an excellent sleeper, which made things much easier!) As a FTM, I was always paranoid that there would be a fire or someone would break in & I wouldn't be able to be there for him.

Since then, we've always had all bedrooms up. I prefer that, and figure the biggest benefit come from the time they get out of the crib until they no longer need me to calm fears (or help with illnesses) in the middle of the night. I'd never use a gate with my 5 year old, but I'd worry about him falling down the stairs in the middle of the night.

That said, when I had knee surgery, it would have been nice to have a bedroom on the main level! Plus, it would make it easier to see this as our "forever" home.

[sunshineluv]

Both of my houses have had the master on the first floor. It was annoying when the kids were infants, but overall I prefer it. I love our floor plan two beds down two up. The kids rooms are upstairs (they are 2 and 4). I like the separation of the kids stuff. Granted we will be using sound monitors basically forever.

[imojoebunny]

We have two houses. At one we all have bedrooms on different floors. At one we have bedrooms on all the same floors. In our previous home, we had master upstairs, and kids on the main level. It is all in what you make work. I have not had a problem with any of the situations we have had. We are currently adding a room for DD on the bottom level, and the rest of us will be on the third level. There are good and bad things about all situations. My favorite situation is one child on each floor, and DH and I on the top floor because it is the quietist.

[lilybug]

It was a dealbreaker for me when house hunting. My kids often stumble to my bed half asleep either in the night or early in the morning, and I wouldn't want them to have to navigate stairs.

[underwaterrhymes]

I personally hate this style, but it's not common where we live anyway.

I know other people who love it and wouldn't have it any other way.

[Elsa]

We have that set up, it's fine. Belle is in our room for now, and will be prob till she sleeps thru the night cause I'm not doing stairs in the MOTN.

But M has been upstairs since she was 14mo (when we bought this house) and it's been great. No issues. It's especially awesome now that she is older and gets herself up and to bed bc she is a little separated from downstairs noise (doing dishes, etc).

[ECB]

We have this. Moved in when Ds just turned 2 (the day before). Never had a problem with it. Actually love it. House is old and creaky and I don't have to worry about waking him.

[niki]

We have all on top floor and I prefer it. My anxiety would be through the roof to have them on different floors (fire, etc.). Also, I like having all the bedrooms away from the main living areas. I know my kids would treat out bedroom like an extension of the living room if it were on the main level and if their bedrooms were on the main level, there would be books and toys everywhere.

[jane6672]

YES GET THEM AWAY FROM ME





I don't have kids, but I assume this is how I would feel.

[hopecounts]

Our current house is master and guest room downstairs DD's room, spare room and playroom upstairs.
I like it, we have a monitor and DD doesn't come out of her room at night.
I like that DH and I have our own area in the house.
I didn't want DD in the downstairs room because it is right by the front door and that made me nervous she would have to pass our room to reach an exterior Door with the current arrangement which makes me feel better.

[penguingrrl]

I have a 1st floor master and hate it. I don't love my 3 year old coming down the stairs looking for us half asleep. And the kids are noisy in the morning which means my husband can't sleep in at all because he hears them. It also means our room has to be spotless if we have company because it's visible. It's generally neat anyway but it's another space to have neat.

But we're in a fairly small house (1100SF), which exacerbates feeling like our room is in the middle of everything. It might be different if the master felt like it was in a more private part of the house versus in the middle of everything.

[muffin0]

We have that, and its been fine. We had a gate at both ends until we felt comfortable that the youngest could make it up and down in the middle of the night. (I want to say ~3.5 we took them down, probably could have done it a bit earlier)

[cville]

We have the reverse, kid's bedrooms on the first floor, master (and nursery) upstairs.

It's fine. Never a major problem. Having the nursery upstairs means it's easy when they're babies with the numerous night wakeups.

Maybe twice a year, L uses the excuse of us being downstairs to come out of her room while we're watching tv for shenanigans.

I have never understood the sturm und drang over sleeping on a different floor from kids.

[ProfessorArtNerd]

Sept 3, 2016 22:30:18 GMT -5 jane6672 said:

YES GET THEM AWAY FROM ME





I don't have kids, but I assume this is how I would feel.

I do, and (hypothetically, since we aren't moving any time soon) I DO!!

[gummybear]

The would be a complete hard stop for us and would make even the perfect house unappealing and a no-go. I have too much anxiety.

[carrotsmakemefat]

No experience with it but I used to think it was a huge negative with kids. I think it can be annoying short term but amazing long term to have that separation. Plus you'll have a monitor for the short term. If you're considered about the kid going downstairs you can always baby gate at the top or look at other ways to proof

[DotAndBuzz]

We have this and it's great. The guest room is also upstairs with the kids rooms, and if one of them is sick/I'll need to help them a few times a night, I just sleep in the guest room.

[YahYahs]

We just moved into a house with a first-floor master. We LOVE it. I was unsure at first, too, but our kids are 5.5 and 4, so it's actually pretty nice to have some separation, haha. I wouldn't have wanted this set-up with a baby.

[penguingrrl]

Sept 4, 2016 7:12:46 GMT -5 cville said:

We have the reverse, kid's bedrooms on the first floor, master (and nursery) upstairs.

It's fine. Never a major problem. Having the nursery upstairs means it's easy when they're babies with the numerous night wakeups.

Maybe twice a year, L uses the excuse of us being downstairs to come out of her room while we're watching tv for shenanigans.

I have never understood the sturm und drang over sleeping on a different floor from kids.

I'll be honest, I feel like teens having bedrooms below their parents would have an easier time sneaking out than if their rooms are in the same floor, but that's my biggest concern about the bedrooms on separate floors and it's not like teens don't find a way to sneak out if they want to regardless. I just hate having my bedroom in the "public" part of the house versus there being a clear separation of "public" and "private" spaces.

[cville]

Sept 4, 2016 8:32:39 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Sept 4, 2016 7:12:46 GMT -5 cville said:

We have the reverse, kid's bedrooms on the first floor, master (and nursery) upstairs.

It's fine. Never a major problem. Having the nursery upstairs means it's easy when they're babies with the numerous night wakeups.

Maybe twice a year, L uses the excuse of us being downstairs to come out of her room while we're watching tv for shenanigans.

I have never understood the sturm und drang over sleeping on a different floor from kids.

I'll be honest, I feel like teens having bedrooms below their parents would have an easier time sneaking out than if their rooms are in the same floor, but that's my biggest concern about the bedrooms on separate floors and it's not like teens don't find a way to sneak out if they want to regardless. I just hate having my bedroom in the "public" part of the house versus there being a clear separation of "public" and "private" spaces.

Yeah, but I figure if the only thing keeping my kids from sneaking out is a set of stairs, there's other issues. Such as my kids totally lacking creativity and gumption. Ha.

Our downstairs bedrooms are off of a sort of offset hallway thing so they're not in the living/dining/kitchen areas, which helps with the public/private separation.

[fivechickens]

Sept 4, 2016 7:51:42 GMT -5 gummybear said:

The would be a complete hard stop for us and would make even the perfect house unappealing and a no-go. I have too much anxiety.

Our first house had master on 2nd and kids/guest on first. I hated it. My anixety hated it.

When we were looking for our current house all the bedrooms had to be on one floor.

It seems that new construction homes are being designed with bedrooms on one level more than having master on the 1st.

[ECB]

Sept 4, 2016 8:01:20 GMT -5 carrotsmakemefat said:

No experience with it but I used to think it was a huge negative with kids. I think it can be annoying short term but amazing long term to have that separation. Plus you'll have a monitor for the short term. If you're considered about the kid going downstairs you can always baby gate at the top or look at other ways to proof

exaclty. Was it ideal with a 2 year old? No. But now at 7? It's great. And as he gets older, I think we'll all appreciate having that space. It was really only about 2 ish years where id be annoyed at times. But we'll have 13ish years of where we love it.

[penguingrrl]

Sept 4, 2016 8:46:55 GMT -5 cville said:

Sept 4, 2016 8:32:39 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

I'll be honest, I feel like teens having bedrooms below their parents would have an easier time sneaking out than if their rooms are in the same floor, but that's my biggest concern about the bedrooms on separate floors and it's not like teens don't find a way to sneak out if they want to regardless. I just hate having my bedroom in the "public" part of the house versus there being a clear separation of "public" and "private" spaces.

Yeah, but I figure if the only thing keeping my kids from sneaking out is a set of stairs, there's other issues. Such as my kids totally lacking creativity and gumption. Ha.

Our downstairs bedrooms are off of a sort of offset hallway thing so they're not in the living/dining/kitchen areas, which helps with the public/private separation.

LOL! My husband hears *everything* even while sleeping, so walking downstairs and out the door would be enough where climbing out their bedroom window probably wouldn't. He has freakish supersonic hearing, where when I'm asleep I'm dead to the world.

And that separation would make it better. We have no separation. And use the "4th bedroom" in our house as a family room and it's next to ours, so no privacy at all

[devonpow]

Our old house has the kids on the first floor and the master on the second. Our current house we have the kids on the 3rd floor and the master on the second. We have ever had an issue with the kids being on different floors. Even during infant/sleep issue stages it wasn't a big deal. We just use monitors for longer than usual. No big deal.