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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not understand why some parents have adult only living rooms

120 replies

carriedababi · 27/07/2011 18:10

seems a bit mean to the childrento say this living room is adults only,
i can understand wanting your own space a bit in the bedroom, but to have an adults only living room...

well surely you live together as one family don't you.

OP posts:
Original poster
carriedababi · 27/07/2011 18:29

with a handy cattle prod under the coffee table incase one of the little feckers breaks in Wink

OP posts:
Firawla · 27/07/2011 18:29

I have banned my kids toys from living room at the moment, as we moved somewhere that their bedroom is actually much bigger than the living room so i thought why cant they keep it all in there! Obviously they are allowed to come in the living room, and they do bring some toys and stuff in, but atleast it does not belong in here so i can keep sticking it back in their room rather than the whole place overtaken with kids toys, as I had in our last flat which gets quite annoying as you feel like toys are just everywhere and taken over the whole place. So I will be mostly sticking to this from now on, we are about to move again and purposely chose somewhere that has some separate rooms rather than everything open plan, so that I don't have their stuff infiltrating the whole living area.
It's not about kids not being part of the family to live in the house, or being mean or anything like that it is just nice and more relaxing to have the place organised which is easier to do if you have place for their toys which is not in the living room.
Not allowing children to set foot into a room would be a bit extreme though imo. Mine do come in for the tv as I wouldnt want tv in their room for now

BosomForAPillow · 27/07/2011 18:30

A friend of my sister's is still not allowed in the "adult" living room of the house and she is now 18! The mother does let the dogs in there though. Confused

PassTheTwiglets · 27/07/2011 18:30

It's for reasons of tidiness, obviously. Just nice to have at least one room that doesn't need detritus clearing from it at the end of the day.

We will eventually have two living rooms and one of them will be almost like an adults only room. The kids won't be banned from it but their toys will be. We are calling it 'the quiet room' - they aren't allowed to jump around and go crazy in there, or take any toys in, but if they want to go and read a book in there that's fine. I need somewhere that will stay tidy and where I can escape the chaos for 10 minutes.

This is the theory, anyway. I bet a mere half an hour after the decorating is finished it will be full of Lego :)

mypersonalfavourite · 27/07/2011 18:32

I can't wait to move house and quietly shut the door on a sea full of crap and relax in the nice room.

LeonieDeSaintVire · 27/07/2011 18:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

scottishmummy · 27/07/2011 18:33

we do this.locked lounge,child free chaos free zone
nice white things,no jammie hands
glass, objets d'art, dvd with no biscuit in it
sofa without biscuits,duplo,detritus stuffed in it
and its bliss

cornsilksy · 27/07/2011 18:36

carrie and I must have the scruffiest houses on MN

Original poster
carriedababi · 27/07/2011 18:36

of course its fine to have a room with no toys or crap in it, i'm talking about adult only rooms!
where children are banned in family homes
in their homes

Wink
OP posts:
cornsilksy · 27/07/2011 18:37

random predictions

houses with adult only rooms:
mylene
kerry katona
jordan

activate · 27/07/2011 18:39

we have a more grown-up friendly living room and a teen-friendly living room

children are not banned from grown-up room but mess is

games consoles, tv, stereo, big bean bags, table, chairs are all in teen style room

I don't want to listen to their crappy music or inane chat sometimes nor do they want to listen to me

DogsBestFriend · 27/07/2011 18:40

Spot on AgentZigZag.

MumblingRagDoll · 27/07/2011 18:40

We're bout to boot DD2 out of her room so she can share with DD1 and DH and I can have an "office"

sunnydee · 27/07/2011 18:43

We used to have a playroom when ours were little and a main living room which of course the kids were allowed into but all the toys were kept in the playroom.

Worked for us.

DogsBestFriend · 27/07/2011 18:44

"A friend of my sister's is still not allowed in the "adult" living room of the house and she is now 18! The mother does let the dogs in there though."

The dogs are unlikely to dominate the television, blare some god-awful rap music or spill coffee on the furniture.

cornsilksy · 27/07/2011 18:44

what about hamsters? Are they allowed in?

scarlettsmummy2 · 27/07/2011 18:50

because it is nice to have one room that is not a total tip and which you can have nice things without the fear your toddler is going to wreck them!

Original poster
carriedababi · 27/07/2011 18:50

talking of hands, i'd better pass round some hand gel, for the adult only rooms.
keep out the pesky germs aswell

Wink
OP posts:
DogsBestFriend · 27/07/2011 18:52

Only if they're over a year old and have already eaten and been to the loo, cornsilksy. :o

naughtymummy · 27/07/2011 18:55

We are planing a kitchen extension, which wil house 2nd TV, bean bags and less good sofa. Hopefully then dh and I can reclaim the sitting room :)

amothersplaceisinthewrong · 27/07/2011 18:57

I had an adult livign room with a lock on it to stop my kids getting in there unless I went in with then to watch a DVD/TV. No toys were allowed in it. Bliss! Also of course had lock on bedroom door as kids were only allowed in there by invitation (and never befor 6:30 am!)

MCos · 27/07/2011 18:58

We have one, and it is great.
No toys allowed, kids not allowed to eat in there.

Kids only allowed watch TV in there if the adults are not wanting to watch something in there.

We have a second living room with TV/DVD/Wii, and the kids are allowing bring toys in there but they need to tidy up after themselves, they also have a playroom which only gets tidied once per week (so I can hoover the rug!), and a bedroom each. So they are certainly not hard done by.

And I have one room that I can bring a visitor into at any time.

Mishy1234 · 27/07/2011 18:59

If we had the space I'd definitely want one! Just somewhere which didn't have tons of toys and child related stuff in it. I would keep my nice books/music etc in there. The other alternative would be to have a playroom where ALL toys were kept.

Don't have room for either unfortunately:-(

Mishy1234 · 27/07/2011 19:01

MCos - I'm very Envy. A second living room AND a playroom.

Allinabinbag · 27/07/2011 19:02

I can see the white living room being nice, but...I used to childmind for a family who had only one child and tried very hard to contain him, he had a very nice bedroom and a huge playroom with a video-recorder and TV in (this was a while ago) but it was really sad as they used to make him go in there on his own and watch stuff, and he was only allowed to put his paintings up in his own rooms (what's the point in that, they want them displayed!) It was all quite sad really, and did say something about their whole set-up. It was like they were pretending he wasn't there.

But having one nice living room if you have two is perfectly reasonable, indeed very desirable. Wouldn't personally ban children from it, but then they are not banned from any room in our house and can frequently be found in my bed watching TV/having a cuddle/playing games on it, it's all rather fluid...(and messy).