mums of little children - which would you choose: a playoom or a formal dining room?

[Titter]

assuming kitchen is big enough for a table to sit 6

Playrooms are my biggest dislike in houses and would prefer a nice adult space as kids stuff is usually all over the house anyway and as soon as you designate them an area they want to go elsewhere!

it hasn't woked like that hee, noddy

boys in playoom moe than anywhee else

maybe because it's quite a big room - contains all their toys, sofa, big tv etc

a few things drift into the kitchen during the day, but mostly chaos rules only in the playoom

We have two "reception" rooms - one is a family room/playroom (I tend to call it a playroom when people are visiting to explain the toys strewn around!)
and the other is a more grown-up living room (where toys are not allowed in theory )

Both have tv's in...

When the dcs are a bit older and don't have so many toys I will probably put a dining table in the "playroom" and a cupboard for board games, etc. But tbh I can't see us eating in there more than a few times a year...

I'm obviously getting my topics confused - I read the OP as mums of little chickens.

Definitely playroom. It is so dispiriting seeing our living room full of toys, plastic crap, and even though I tidy it up every evening, the hideousness of primary colours seems inescapable.

Could you not divide the dining room, if it's big enough?

both my sil's have dining rooms which are hardly used and full of clutter and they eat on their knees in front of the tv.

It also ends up that they are all squashed into one room doing different things.

I would turn their DRs into playrooms so the kids have their own space.

PLAYROOM!!

Dining room, we eat at the table two/three times a day and the Dc's use it for colouring/homework etc.
Their toys and playstuff goes in their bedrooms, I don't want my house like a playcentre.

ok, here's our house layout: toy free front room (12 x 16ft), playroom (12ft x 12ft), kitchen diner, containing a 6ft table, 10ft x 24ft. This works a million times better for us than having a formal dining room. The room would never be used as formal dining room, and kids toys would be all over the house without playroom.

Play room

Formal dining room will be used so infrequently, if you can comfortably eat in kitchen (far more social place to eat anyway IMO if you have the right room for it).

Playroom will be used all the time. Our playroom (actually spare bedroom) is kept tidy and def doesn;t not looked trashed at all.

playroom, we moved our table into the kitchen and turned the dining room into a playroom. will turn it back into a dining room when dc's are older and no longer have toys downstairs

Playroom.

We have a playroom, we shut the door on toys and desks at seven o'clock it's lovely!!

PLAYROOM

Playroom keep toys downstairs and (mostly) away from bedrooms and adult space, also great for playdates etc as adults can talk children can play seperately

A playroom! I find the kids (age 3+4) never go up to their rooms to play with toys there apart from just when they are about to get into bed.

Even if toys are in the living room they rarely play with them. As such I hardly have any toys in there now. We knocked the wall down between our kitchen and dining room to make the area more useful but I'd love a downstairs playroom to shove all the mess in and keep the rest of the house tidy.

I really don't see the point of a formal dining room to be used twice a year when you have ample eating space in the kitchen

Thing is, eating in the kitchen is my pet hate. I much prefer to have a room where we can eat and chat and not be surrounded by the evidence of preparing/cooking/clearing up meals.

So dining room every time for me. Although I know friends who have a dining room but also have a comfy sofa in there so it's sort of dual purpose but is still their 'dining' room and they do eat in there.