Housing Crisis - 5 in a two bed flat

[Westcountrygal]

I was flabbergasted to recently learn about so many people sharing incredibly cramped living conditions. A Scottish MP saying on the radio that he grew up sharing with his two brothers, effectively three kids to a bedroom.

A colleague living in a two bed flat with her three kids, older ones sharing and baby in with the parents- where will they all go as the kids get older?

I live in an incredibly expensive city and coming across so many people living in very cramped living conditions must be so difficult. Where do people even keep all their clothes/ endless washing/ belongings?

Five of us were in a bedroom until I was 7. My parents in a double bed, me and my older brother had a single bed each and my younger brother in a cot. My grandmother, grandfather and grand uncle had a bedroom each to themselves.

When I was 7 my Dad built an extension, it was one big bedroom with two double beds. I didn't have a room of my own until I was 24, in college. The first couple of places I was in after I moved away, I shared a room due to finances.

It's all very well to talk about contraception but I live in Ireland and my mother could not access contraception until the early 80s, after my younger brother was born. Several families in my village had 8 children and I went to school with a girl who was one of 14.

I have my own home now, no children and I love the space and peace and quiet!

Lots of modern houses are not like that. My friend lived in a 3 bed new build. Only the master was big enough for a double bed. One room could fit a single bed and the other only a cot. I only have a 2 bed but it is Victorian and the rooms are much bigger as well as having high ceilings.

Why do they have more children? Thoughtless to have a baby on top of 2 other kids in a 2bed flat

So why do people in poverty have more children?

tbh that’s just as bad as second homes . Yes to a few holiday lets but it should be capped with licenses and taxed more than if you’re renting out on along term basis imo.

I actually think growing up in a smaller home is better - children learn consideration by sharing space such as bathrooms and you are closer as a family if you all sit in the same room every night. Also you tend to expect as an adult what you had as a child, meaning you are more likely to be disappointed if you grew up in a 5-bed.

I wouldn't call that cramped, everyone has a bedroom and a bed presumably. Maybe if the youngest 2 are teens in bunk beds.

Yes, it's completely normal

@Westcountrygal drop and go? Just shit posting because you're bored?

You asked where the stuff goes, well you can't have a lot of stuff.

I grew up in a 4 bed house - family of 4. I have a 2 bed with my 2 teens who have the bedrooms. I'm not dissapointed - I feel incredibly lucky to have my own house even if it is smaller than I grew up in.

When my cousin's son and daughter were teenagers, they had a bedroom each and she had a sofabed in the living room. She had a decent job, but rental prices are high and she prioritised living in an area with good schools rather than space.

In my own social circle, no one I know is living in overcrowded housing (some have 2 kids sharing a room but in most cases kids have their own room) but almost all of us are living in small houses that a couple of decades ago would have been viewed as 'starter homes'. We're in our 40s in well paid jobs - so given we're in the small houses it doesn't surprise me that many people in lower paid work are living in even smaller houses/flats in very overcrowded conditions.

I must admit growing up in the 80s/90s I didn't have any friends whose parents slept in the sitting room but this is quite common now. Maybe it was normal going further back.

I think it’s pretty standard to have small homes and children sharing, unless people have a high income.

what I do think needs to be addressed in the uk is the trend for new builds to have tiny rooms with little storage space etc.

In some other countries it's seen as much less of a big deal. I know a wealthy family where mum and son and daughter (9 and 11) share a bedroom. And another where a successful businesswoman in her thirties chooses to share a bedroom with her 13 year-old sister.

I grew up in a two bedroomed council flat. I shared a bedroom with my three brothers. This was normal for that era 60's into 70's.

I shared a small bedroom with my sister and brother until my parents had an extra bedroom built when I was 12. We had an absolute blast. A bunk bed and a single. We fought over who slept where, so Mum had a rota and we swapped every week🤣 We used to have our friends round and use the beds as an obstacle course, climbing onto the top bunk and jumping onto the single bed. I don’t remember where our clothes were kept as there was only a small chest of drawers and a toy cupboard in the room. No room for a wardrobe. We couldn’t really have slept in one room any longer than we did as I started my periods while the extension was being built and would have been mortified to share a room with my brother.

Lots of reasons.

Women who live in poverty generally have children younger, hence having more children. Whilst the women who wait until 30’s-40’s tend to concentrate on a career and financial stability before having children.

Cultural norms. People who grew up in large families tend to create larger families themselves.

Lack of sex education and education on contraception. Mistrusting the healthcare system or having a limited advantage to access healthcare.

It’s quite a nuanced and complex discussion but statistically families in more deprived areas do tend to have higher birth rates and have more kids than wealthier families.

In student residences in China there are 6 students to a smallish room, with 2 three-tier bunk beds.

My first home was a 2 bedroom flat - we lived there until there were 3 children. We then moved to a small 3 bed semi and my mum and dad had another baby, so it was a bunk bed and a single bed in one bedroom for the boys and me in the box room. It was definitely one of the deciding factors for me only having 2 children myself!! Although we now have more bedrooms than people and I never take for granted how lucky we are to have all the space

I don't want to say check your privilege OP but surely you had an inkling that large numbers of people in the UK live in sub-standard and overcrowded conditions?

It’s quite a nuanced and complex discussion but statistically families in more deprived areas do tend to have higher birth rates and have more kids than wealthier families.

For which we should be bloody grateful.

European govts have finally clocked they’ve starved the middle classes out of breeding so we now need families who bust a gut to bring up as many kids as possible.

Social housing is the only way to afford a lot of children. Low-income homes could never be more of a gift to the rest of us.

Yes, ideally you’d have the doctors and lawyers who fund the homes having their own high-income DC, but that ship sailed with house prices and tax rises.

I am by no means poor. I live in a small apartment in central London, albeit it’s probably worth low seven figures. I just don’t have much stuff! I hate the stuff, for me personally it’s a waste of money having the stuff and I prefer to go out/ events/ trips etc…..it’s also not all about money. I would hate to be maintaining the bigger home I could technically afford…..but to me I know I would be annoyed maintaining bathrooms I don’t need!

When I was a child, my mum and I lived in a bedsit - i.e. one room - for a couple of years. Shared kitchen and bathroom. Mum had the double bed, I slept on the sofa. It was okay until my dad joined us.

Quite common.
We relocated at Christmas to a Nordic capital from UK.
We have 65m2 for 2 adults and a teen. We have very small bedrooms. A lot of our coworkers have similar housing conditions and the families I have spoken to at the teen's international school are in the same position.

We could more out of the capital and buy a house with more m2 and a garden for the same money as we have put in this flat. We don't want to move out again rural and we can't afford more m2 here. So here we are. No big deal really.

Out last house in UK was extremely rural so we had much more m2 and a garden but we enjoy being a city now.

How many of you are in the apartment?

We moved out of a city and the south east as we wanted more than one dc and housing was an issue.