Albie Knows Reasons For (finally) Giving Our Toddler Her Own Room

I don’t know at what age (for your child) that you stop being a “new parent” or “first-time parent” but I know for us as new, first time parents, it took us a while before we decided to give our daughter her own room.

From the day she was born, she’s been sleeping by our side — in NYC we lived in a studio apartment so her mini crib was right beside our bed. As we “sleep trained” her, while we did move the bed further away, it’s still a studio...in NYC.

When we moved to WA, our first apartment was a one bedroom plus den — so kind of like having a second bedroom but not really. With where it was located in the apartment — right by the front door, on the opposite end of the main bedroom — and with where I was in business, launching a new subscription box & branching off from third-party design companies, using that room as a home office was an easy decision. Our daughter was still under 2 years old at the time.

Six months later when we moved into our current apartment — a 2 bedroom condo — the master bedroom was nearly double the size of our previous bedroom, not to mention practically the same square footage as the living area of our NYC studio. This made deciding to have our daughter in our room & using the 2nd bedroom, again, as a home office a no-brainer.

She was able to have her toddler bed comfortably in our room, while still having a play area in my office for when I was working from home while my husband was at work. This was 15 months ago.

My daughter is now 3 years old & my business has taken on a new & exciting life so when my husband randomly suggested during family breakfast fo give her the 2nd bedroom, I simply replied, “okay, let’s do it.” He was actually surprised at how quickly I agreed — apparently he prepared a whole pitch!

So why did I agree to sacrifice my home office & sanctuary?

Simple. My daughter has always had a very independent spirit but now that she’s a full-blown threenager, it was time to give her her own space to continue to thrive (and throw tantrums) and truly be independent.

I also knew since we’d be, God willing, putting her in school in the fall, that we needed to establish a bit more of a routine in her days & nights.

So what about my business?

While I still A LOT of things brewing in my business, I’ve never had more clarity!

While I have currently put my subscription box on hold to pivot the clientele, I took on a whole new business to business venture, in addition to design work. While having a dedicated space for me to work was great, my daughter’s development is priceless — I can work anywhere!

Not having a subscription service up & running right now means I don’t need a place to store inventory or shipping supplies. Refining my services means being able to manage my time in a way that doesn’t require any solitude. Having a business to business endeavor means I can get creative with how I serve my new audience, even if that means my living room is my backdrop.

So what’s next?

Next, we move me out and transition her in.

This means assimilating my office furniture into different parts of the house, getting all her stuff — furniture, toys, clothes, everything — in her new room, reclaiming (or claiming for the first time) a grown-up bedroom... and lastly making it all pretty!

Most of all though, this means giving my daughter the space she needs to be the best (or worst) threenager she can be! Second to this, it definitely means my husband and I hopefully don’t have to wake up to a toddler’s knee in one of our backs.