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Original poster

We don’t have a playroom

161 replies

Lliitlllee · 03/01/2025 22:12

Someone please reassure me this is normal? Stupidly getting mum guilt over it as I watch tik toks of people rearranging their playrooms after Christmas !

Our house is a bit of a squeeze. Open plan downstairs but thank goodness for Ikea kallax that helps store so much! But we pay 2 sets of nursery fees so moving isn’t imminent

We’d love a bigger house and I dream of an extra room downstairs for my kids to have all their toys laid out! Ours isn’t majorly organised I try to rotate them etc

but yes - please tell me lots of you don’t have playrooms???

OP posts:
Nodlikeyouwerelistening · 03/01/2025 23:06

You have children, you know how it is. As soon as you designate it a “playroom” specifically for them to explore everything within it safely and independently they would lose all interest anyway. Trying to bust into the childproofed cupboard with the bleach and toxic chemicals, jumping off the Kallax whilst playing “parachutes,” and sliding down the stairs at breakneck speeds on your duvet is waaaay more fun than a playroom. I’ve not seen the “mumfluencers” on TikTok putting knives and other sharp objects in their perfect playrooms, so I very much doubt their kids show any interest in these rooms they are wasting time and money doing up completely boringly anyway.

MumonabikeE5 · 03/01/2025 23:06

One shared kids bedroom with plenty of shelves and as much floor space as possible.
No living room just a dining kitchen.
Two happy kids.

JumpstartMondays · 03/01/2025 23:07

SwordToFlamethrower · 03/01/2025 23:03

We have a living room and a kitchen downstairs. The kitchen doesn't even fit a table!
So the living room has everything in it. Table, computer table, sofa, books, dvds, games, TV... and our toddler's toys are supposed to fit in here too!

It's actually a nightmare. This house is supposed to be for up to 5 people! What a joke.

Same. Toddler and preschooler!

We ditched the dvd player and dvds recently to make more space for kid books!

UnderTheStairs51 · 03/01/2025 23:10

We live in a fairly compact three bed terrace. Definitely no play room.

My husband entered one of the competitions run locally to win a house over Christmas and we were doing the fantasy 'would we move there' on our walk and then all of a sudden my 11 year old was crying. He loves his house and was devastated by the idea of being anywhere else.

Of course we didn't win and it was only imaginary chat but it was quite sweet to see just how much the kids love their pretty basic home. And their friends are always here so it can't be that bad.

fuuwan · 03/01/2025 23:11

Try to stay off tiktok...
It's not real life.
Once you start clicking on the type of videos you describe you will see more and more of them because that's how the algorithm works. You then starting thinking everyone lives in a perfect home which looks immaculate and has a perfect playroom where toys are arranged after Christmas.
"Playroom reset" videos. Playroom is a shit tip with toys (has probably deliberately been made into a shit tip for effect). Speeded up video of the Mum (usually immaculately dressed and beautifully made up) putting all toys away into perfect storage solutions (link in the comments to purchase them) and finally camera pans around the beautiful room where everything is in shades of grey and pink.

Toys don't need to be laid out. Children don't need a playroom. They don't need their parents fannying on making tiktok videos either.
Children need love and care and attention.

Dextybooboo · 03/01/2025 23:11

No playroom and open plan downstairs. We have the sofa pulled forward in the living room and some toys behind. Dd proudly calls this her playroom. Makes me smile!

RareMaker · 03/01/2025 23:12

No playroom here. 4 kids. No space.

ExtraDisorganised · 03/01/2025 23:12

No playroom for us, even Kallax units are too bulky for our small rooms. DCs have survived into adulthood ok. We didn't have one in my parents house either.

VenusClapTrap · 03/01/2025 23:13

We had a dining room that we never used, so we turned it into a playroom… that never got used. Now it’s a guinea pig room. They have no choice seem to like it.

Itsallgonesideways · 03/01/2025 23:16

I don't know anyone with a playroom.

Chef64 · 03/01/2025 23:19

Maybe stop looking at Tik Tok. It isn’t the real world

notnorman · 03/01/2025 23:20

We have a playroom which is now a dog bedroom

MargaretThursday · 03/01/2025 23:22

We had a brief discussion when we moved here whether to put the girls in together in the small room with bunk beds and have a play room.

We decided not to, even though they were quite keen at the time.

The only person I knew with a playroom was a childminder.

Crikeyalmighty · 03/01/2025 23:22

The 2 houses I've been to recently only have one because they have turned their lounge into one and have their sofa and TV and small dining table etc all crammed into a not that huge dining kitchen - which to me felt a bit odd - but each to his own I guess

Silvertulips · 03/01/2025 23:23

If I had a spare room it would be an adult snug - not a plastic junk room.

You really need to be thankful for health children who have parents who love and support them.

Tiny houses make tight knit families.

ElsaGreen · 03/01/2025 23:23

We rebranded our living room as the playroom - makes us feel better about it being taken over by DC stuff!

But in all seriousness, it's her home too, I love it that the living room has become her playroom - it won't last forever, one day she'll be a teenager and be telling us she needs time away from us in her room.

I also allow her to use as many tinsel colours as she likes on the Xmas tree - my own mother was such a control freak about having a perfect tree that I love allowing DC the freedom to have fun decorating, even if it looks a bit shit by most people's standards.

I don't think you need a playroom...but I do judge parents whose living spaces show no signs of their children.

Xmasbaby11 · 03/01/2025 23:26

We have a playroom - I guess in the past it would have been a dining room but we have a big kitchen diner. I had a playroom growing up and loved it. Actually now kids are 11 and 13, they don’t use it and I have it as my office, but it was great when they were younger and they used it all the time. However most people manage without and I’m sure we would have too.

I actually can’t think of anyone else locally who has a playroom and we’re really not well off. I think like with anything it’s priorities- we wanted a big house but it’s not an expensive area, and we put it above holidays.

Monkeybutt1 · 03/01/2025 23:27

Everyone I know who has a playroom it's actually the dining room and I find it weird like kids have to be kept away from everyone else. One family I know have a playroom and an adults room, which is just a lounge! They playroom has toys a couch and a TV so it's like they've segregated the kids from the adults

2chocolateoranges · 03/01/2025 23:27

No playroom, no dining room, no 2nd bathroom and tiny bedrooms!
how have my children survived?

as long as our home is full of love and laughter then that’s all that’s important.

florasl · 03/01/2025 23:28

Our DC almost never go in their playroom that I spent ages decorating. It’s essentially a nicely decorated storage room at this point. The previous owners extended to add a home office on our pretty ordinary 3 bed semi but we didn’t need one. I will probably convert it to a snug/study room when DC are a little older.

devilspawn · 03/01/2025 23:29

Call your downstairs a playroom, job done.

WimbyAce · 03/01/2025 23:43

We use our conservatory to store toys as rapidly running out of space! Kids share a bedroom. Toys also in our living room which is also our dining room and my workspace when WFH. All good fun! We are trying to upsize but actually kids are perfectly happy in the house.

Butterbean21 · 03/01/2025 23:45

We have had a playroom in our last two houses (we live in a very affordable area of the UK) but as before it was the least used room in the house. I'll admit it was handy having somewhere to hide the clothes horse and put all the kids toys at night so I don't have to look at it when chilling after bedtime. We have actually just got rid of our playroom for a more casual lounge as they are getting beyond the age of giant toys.

Also to those guilty about sharing a bedroom...my children have a bedroom each but share every night. Within that bedroom they have 3 beds to choose from but every night chose to share the bottom double bunk. Plus they try their hardest to guilt trip me into sleeping in that room too. All that matters is that the kids have what they need. A warm and cosy bed.

RufustheFactuaIReindeer · 03/01/2025 23:50

We had a playroom which was fully used by my children

other people had dining rooms 😀

BigDeepBreaths · 03/01/2025 23:51

You meed to get off TilTok, insta etc.

Comparison is the thief of joy etc etc…

This reminds me of a friend who had a (posh) kid come to play and after 10 mins came bounding into her kitchen “Excuse me Jimmys Mum, I’ve been all over your house a few times and i cant find your playroom”