I would love to say we chose to parent in a small house, but the truth is we didn’t.
Our house was perfect for when we had just one, pushing it with two and now with four we are just not in a financial position to move.
In saying that, we have really seen the benefits and the positives of parenting in a smaller house.
Here they are:
There is nowhere to hide.
We have never had more space so we don’t know any different, but because we don’t have many rooms, if the kids have had an argument or lose their temper (hello pre-teens). It gets sorted almost immediately.
They learn responsibility.
There is not a lot of space to leave things about. Toys, clothes, school supplies - it all gets cluttered without much effort, so our children, for the most part, know they must keep on top of keeping things tidy. It doesn’t always go to plan but when it does it makes us very proud.
It is easier to keep clean.
Cleaning the house is never an easy task. But, when you live in a smaller house there are fewer spaces to clean. A cleaner house means a less stressed mum, so it's a win-win.
More time spent with your spouse.
This is one point we overlooked for some time but it is an important one. Living in a small house means we have one living area, one TV and one couch. When the children go to bed and we crave the silence and the time to ourselves, we enjoy it together. If there was a separate room it would sometimes mean we would spend the time apart, watching separate things. But, we compromise and we get to reconnect and it is our normal.
Can you relate to any of these?