How do I get the children to use the playroom?

[LogBasketOfDreams]

I have three children aged 4, 7 and 9. The downstairs bit of our house has a large kitchen living area with a big dining table and a sofa plus the actual kitchen. Then a separate living room, a bathroom and then another room off the kitchen/living room which is supposed to be a playroom.

But the children never play in it!

I've tried various things- having all the Lego out in there. Having the scalextric on the floor. A big table. Then no table so huge floor space. Comfy seating. But they always end up back in the living space - toys everywhere and the dining table constantly covered in stuff. I spend so much time nagging them to tidy, or get everything back in the playroom ready for dinner, or just doing it all myself - I feel there MUST be a better way of doing it.

Any ideas?

Does any family have a well-used playroom and if so, what attracts the kids to use it?

Gosh, your house sounds huge.

We have a playroom for DD, it's basically a room to store all her toys which works for us as our living room is quite small. I don't mind her bringing toys around the house, it's nice to put them back when she goes to bed. If I sit in there with her she'll play in there but generally we're all together. I think as she gets older she'll use it more or when friends come over (post COVID!)

Make it comfy enough for you to enjoy storing in there as they will only use it if you are. Dc usually want to be where you are.

*sitting not storing 😆

Mine will only go in there if I go in there with a coffee and a book, as a pp said...

Call it the toy storage room rather than the playroom. More accurate.

You need to toughen up - my DS had a playroom (off the kitchen) toys just weren't allowed outside the playroom unless we were playing a board game or similar all together. Your 9 & 7 year olds are old enough to understand this - so is the 4 year old .

Do they have too many toys and get overwhelmed?

Is it actually a nice space to be in for any prolonged period? The people I know who have a separate playroom, it’s usually the pokiest, least pleasant room in the house.

We have a kitchen, sitting room and playroom. Like a pp I don't allow any toys in the sitting room. If they bring them in i send them back to the playroom. I do sit in there with them though, or at least i did when they were younger.

I meant to say there is a tv and sofa in there so it's their tv room too. I have lots of storage in there so its very easy to tidy too.

Knock the wall down and put in pocket doors or folding doors so the mess can be shut off.
We had a playroom open plan to the kitchen for years and have just turned it into a lounge now the kids are older. We have a separate adult lounge that gets used in the evenings mostly.
Adequate and organised storage and training the children in how to properly tidy up is important.

@JMAngel1 Yes - but we live in a very cheap area. Moved here for work a decade ago and sold a 2 bed in Surrey and spent the same money on a huge place here. We love the space - it'll be ace when the kids are teenagers and need space and all have different friends - it just feels that we need to use it better now.

I do like playing with them, but I also need to be able to get on with jobs etc. And now working from home as schools shut here until goodness knows when.

So I think making it a better storage room for now. And maybe add another table into the main living / kitchen space so they can have all their art stuff and Lego stuff out but still keep the dining table clear for lunch and dinner. And possibly me working from a laptop in that table. Then tidying away after dinner would work.

Off to look at storage!

Tell them. e the parent. Thats the room they play in and no where else. Theyre old enough to understand that.

@MrsDThomas But that isn't the solution. I want to be part of their lives. Not send them away with a hard line. I could just send them to their bedrooms if I wanted that. But I do want a balance - to use the living space less and the playroom more.

And I am able to parent thank you. My question wasn't about children not wanting to eat vegetables or only play on an Xbox.

Make sure it is warm enough! My parents gave me a large room as my bedroom as a child do that it could also be the playroom for my toys but it was on a different floor to the "living space" and really cold, so I hated going up there. I also got sent there if I was naughty so being there alone felt like a punishment even when it wasn't. They could not understand why I didn't want to use it but refused to put the radiator on in there "because I hardly ever use it".

Yep.as others have said it might be better f it was more central. Our playroom is attached to the kitchen, semi open plan. Then the front room is toy free.

I can see what @MrsDThomas is saying, @LogBasketOfDreams - though I think there is a middle ground. You can decide which toys or games can be brought through into the sitting room, and which have to stay in the playroom. For example - anything with lots of bits, like lego, or meccano or jigsaws, and anything messy like colouring or painting, stays in the playroom, but things with fewer bits can come into the sitting room - but only one at a time - one board game, for example, so if they want to stop playing with the thing they've brought through, they have to take it back before they bring the next thing.

That way, they can balance time in the playroom and time with you, and you don't end up with lots of toys in the sitting room, so clearing up is easier.

When my dses were small, we didn't have toys in the front room, as a general rule. Things came through sometimes, but were taken away when finished with - and as most of the toys lived in the dining room, or in the playroom (when we moved to a house that had a room that could be used as such), and as they had a tv with a video player in there, they were happy to play in there most of the time.

To be honest, though, I can't actually remember how we achieved this - the boys are 23, 25 and 27 now, and the early years are lost in the mists of time! Looking back, I think it helped that, when they were little, we lived in a house with a front room and then a dining room leading onto the kitchen, and I used to keep the front room shut up, for most of the day - we did all our living in the dining room, where all their toys lived, and where I could keep an eye on them from the kitchen when I was doing things out there. It had (just) enough space for a table and chairs, plus a cane sofa and chair, and their toys, and their small table and chairs, so it was a comfortable place for us all.

It didn't have a TV, though - that was in the front room, and I used to go in there for my lunch, and watch tv whilst they had their afternoon nap, then, when they came down, they could watch the children's programmes or a video.

When they were older, they definitely liked having their own space - by that time we could afford sky multiroom, so they had their own tv in there, and could watch the things they liked - mainly football - and play playstation, whilst I got the use of the front room TV!

Get some really smart practical storage to either transport and tidy the toys from one room to the other, or have a small area in kitchen for them to keep their toys. Those toys can be rotated occasionally but any overflow must go back to the playroom

We have a similar arrangement. The dcs want to play near us (the adults). The playroom is fairly small and is more or less used as a store room. I have just accepted it and rolled with it (as irritating as it can sometimes be when toys are strewn everywhere).

I have other plans for the small playroom but I am several years away from realising them given the age of youngest dc (and the accompanying tons of plastic tat).