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| What happens at our house when Mason needs space. |
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| Our home theatre. Note the "corral" keeping Fergus from mouthing the TV. |
I've been contemplating the ways this home will create who our boys will become. Architecture as social engineering, if you will. Will our sons envy families with bigger homes and, in turn, end up building huge houses? Will they cry out for SPACE? Will they even notice our house is smaller than others? Will they value the outdoors more? Will they be really good at waiting their turn for the bathroom? Along this vein, I found a great article written in 2006 on npr.org called "Behind the Ever-Expanding American Dream."
Here is what a man who built an 11,00 square foot home wanted for his family: "I always wanted a house big enough that my kids could be in their room screaming, and my wife could be in a room screaming, and I could be somewhere else and not hear any of them," he says. "And I think I have accomplished this with this house, because this house is so big that everyone has their own space."
WOW! Does this creep anyone else out? Personally, when I scream, I want my family to hear me!
Also from the npr.org article, "For John Stilgoe, a professor of landscape history at Harvard University, it's emblematic. "'The big house represents the atomizing of the American family," he says. "Each person not only has his or her own television — each person has his or her own bathroom. Some of these houses are literally designed with three playrooms for two children. This way, the family members rarely have to interact. And the notion of compromise is simply out one of the very many windows these houses sport."
Well, I can say we are interacting in our house. No shortage of that here. But, for what it's worth, Scott and I are the only ones learning to wait for the bathroom.
Also from the npr.org article, "For John Stilgoe, a professor of landscape history at Harvard University, it's emblematic. "'The big house represents the atomizing of the American family," he says. "Each person not only has his or her own television — each person has his or her own bathroom. Some of these houses are literally designed with three playrooms for two children. This way, the family members rarely have to interact. And the notion of compromise is simply out one of the very many windows these houses sport."
Well, I can say we are interacting in our house. No shortage of that here. But, for what it's worth, Scott and I are the only ones learning to wait for the bathroom.
Great thoughts. Learning to share space and live WITH each other is definitely something we are losing in the "McMansions" of America. Here's to "being in each other's business!" Thanks again, Megan.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine once told me that they lived in a huge house and don't have any memories from it and then they moved into a smaller house and those are the memories they hold on to. They were a family in the small house, not living in separate worlds.
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