about the size of my house?

[secretofcrickleyhall]

I own (outright, no mortgage) a three bedroomed terraced house. It's not a large home but it is a lovely one. There is a small garden, beautiful views and it's in a really nice location near parks and our little town centre - just perfect. However, my dad claims it's too small to be a 'family home

I wondered what sort of homes you all lived in ... ?

[WhinyCrabbyPeople]

Love your name too...just finished reading that book!

[MsVestibule]

My friend lives in a teeny tiny two bedroomed terraced house with a DD(6) and DS(5), who share an average size bedroom - the rest of the rooms in the house are tiny. In her and her DH's bedroom, the double bed is pushed up against a wall. Small kitchen, small bathroom, small lounge, their garden is about 3mx2m.

They manage (just). Your dad is being utterly ridiculous.

But Kithulu if your house is the same size as my friend's, how on earth do you fit 10 living things into it . Unless the pets are goldfish.

[SingingSands]

I own a mortgaged 3 bed terrace, it is a bit small but there's only four of us (an
d 2 cats!).
Location is exactly like yours. I love it, love the location and have no plans to move from my lovely family home :)

[louisianablue2000]

Parents! My Mum told me when my brother and SIL plus first DN lived in a three bedroom house it was too small for them to have a second child! She is used to a great big house though. We currently live in a three bedroom house with three children. We want to move but mainly because we have no family nearby and so it would be nice to have a spare room.

[tarantula]

Your Dad isn't Irish is he? All my family back home who have kids have huge houses IMO and seem to think it is terrible to have to bring up kids in a small house. We have a 2 up 2 down in London and are grand with that but my Mum thinks we need a much bigger house. Just more for dp to clean.

[elportodelgato]

I grew up in a big double fronted 4 bed house with over an acre of land. Didn't compensate for living with a dad who was utterly absent and a stepmum who actively and vocally hated me all through my teens right up til I left home (and beyond!) Going back there still makes me shudder and I'm 36 now. If you have a happy home for you and your kids it doesn't matter how 'big' it is - you sound like you have a lovely set up

[bumperella]

My Dad hates my house, too. I don't give a monkeys. It might be small but that means my mortgage is small (relatively!). I don 't get why people feel the need to have big houses - that they then fill with over-priced meaningless "stuff".

[secretofcrickleyhall]

Aw, thanks everyone

Tarantula he's not Irish, I do know what you mean though - I don't think he fully appreciates how expensive things are nowadays. When I was house hunting he kept moaning about stupid stuff, like the fact there is "no parking" here. There IS, it's a quiet road and everybody just sticks their cars on the road but he was obsessed with there not being a garage and didn't seem to "get" that with a max budget of £110,000 I couldn't pick and choose!

It is a lovely house though, the lady who owned it before me kept it in an immaculate state which I am not so good at doing

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

we have a very small 3 bed Victorian semi - little garden, no drive etc
everyone always asks us when we'll be moving, but i think we're fine (family of four)
if we get a bigger house we'll only end up filling it with more stuff.

[TheWoollybacksWife]

I grew up in a three bedroom terraced house - with mum and dad and six siblings. It was a family home full of laughter and love. At times there was no room to swing a cat and God only knows how my mother fed us all from her tiny kitchen with no mod cons.

I now live in a bigger house with a smaller family. Hopefully when my children are grown up their memories will not be "how much room we had when we were growing up" but "how much fun we had when we were growing up".

[Phosphene]

I live in a 5 bedroom house (3000sq ft) with my fiancé.

[Yellowtip]

We have a small three bedroomed cottage (but with a new one bed add on) and I have eight children and they share bedrooms and we're really cramped but no-one wants to move because we've always had this house and we live in the country right by the sea. So we're still here.

[VerySmallSqueak]

It sounds like a perfect family home to me.
We are a family of 4 in a home with a double bedroom and a single bedroom.
You could have 4 kids even if the room sizes aren't big.
You don't need lots of stuff.It's better to be in the right situation.

[Kithulu]

MsV We have dog, cat, kitten and 2 mice. I didn't really ever count then until last week when DS2 at forest school had to say something about his family that is special,he said he had 5 pets. It made me think WTF that's too many!!
We have and amazing superking sized bed in our room, but that fills the room. Luckily 3 boys so sharing is ok for the moment.
The plus side is or mortgage can be covered (just) by DH wages alone so I have been able to stop work and be at home for the kids. We bought 12 years ago, so no worries about getting into negative equity either.

[wild]

secret I love your house! 3 bed here also. Some friends live in much larger, my best friend lives on a boat. It isn't size it's what you do with it etc

[secretofcrickleyhall]

I think one (daft!) worry I have is that he or she might get bullied at school for having a small house if his or her friends all have big detached executive style properties? That's really stupid, right?

[Kithulu]

Yellowtip that sounds lovely

[wild]

you don't want friendships based on house size, surely? Iswym in a way, we live in an affluent village and there is definitely a pecking order
I've made good friends with people who don't think like that, and so have dc

[wild]

in fact my houseboat friend is seen as a very cool playdate!
the people that matter judge you on who you are, not what you own

[VerySmallSqueak]

My kids are ware that we live in a smaller house than their friends but there's never been any problems that they've encountered.

[BlackholesAndRevelations]

Yes secret, that is really stupid. Whatever makes your dad think your house isn't big enough, and you that your kuds will be picked on? Madness I tell you!

whinyCrabbypeople- fantastic nickname!!

[Iaintdunnuffink]

We have 2 children and live in a 3 bed terrace, with not a bad sized garden for a town. I used to feel an expectation from parents that we would move to a 4 bed detached, with a garage, in a nice residential village or small town. We have enough space and have everything within walking distance. Sometimes I do dream of a spare bedroom, downstairs toilet and a bigger room for my youngest son but then appreciate what we have.

We did have our house on the market for a while and went house shopping but decided to stay put. Say our house sold at 250k we could have bought another 3 bed for 300 to 350. On the outside it would look fine, detached, garage, nicer looking drive. Inside we would have no more space, or less!

[auntpetunia]

Yeah stupid! Relative to the houses near my kids school 5 & 6 bed detached footballer houses ours is a small 30s 3 bed semi neither dc ever been bullied because of it.

[AgentZigzag]

More house = more to clean, more temptation to store junk, people will think they can stop over, easier to lose a toddler, further to go to the bog/doorbell, scrotes think you have something to steal, you start hearing noises from the furthest point of the house and shitting yourself etc etc etc

[secretofcrickleyhall]

Thanks, I am going to be having the child in slightly non-conventional circumstances, so I suppose I am just a little sensitive to anything that could mark them as 'different.'