Do playrooms actually work?

[Cakeisafoodgroup]

Just that, really! Does anyone who has a playroom find that their children actually use/play in it? Youngest two dc are 8 and 18 months.
We’re fortunate enough to have an extra room downstairs that DH uses as a study to WFH 2 days a week, but it’s right next to the living room and kitchen and the noise of children and dog is often bothering him. We could reconfigure things so he works upstairs which would be quieter, and turn the current study space into a playroom.
I don’t know anyone with a playroom, however, and I have no idea if it actually works or if it just becomes another dumping room for toys!

IME not really but it can be useful for storage. If you’re willing to hang out in there too then your little kid will use it but certainly my 7yo likes to play in her room and have her friends there and now my 4yo does too, so the playroom became where they would go to get toys to take them to elsewhere! When they were littler they wanted to be where we were so unless I was in playroom too, they would just bring stuff into kitchen etc and play there.

We are currently repurposing ours to more of a family room for movie nights etc and a second general purpose living space and toys have all been moved to bedrooms.

We used ours. It was the old dining room and was in a sunny part of the house, and near the kitchen. I just made sure to use it as my own base when I was in the house, as well as the kids.

It did for us but only because I played in there with the kids. Mine are now 10 and 7 and it is starting to used less so will have to rethink it soon.

We converted our garage into a playroom 5yrs ago. Kids were very little at the time, almost 2 and 4. They would play in it if we were there and we couldn’t leave youngest anyway. As they have got older only youngest plays in it now. She has a Barbie dream house and an lol house so she goes in there and plays quite a bit.
We have just got rid of the sofa in there as no one goes in to sit and watch tv. There is an Xbox but it isn’t used a lot. We are going to get bean bags so they can be stored away in the cupboard and now have a large basketball electronic double shooter in there. Hope this will encourage older child to play a bit more.
I feel we are moving on and trying to make it work for us as the kids get older. Maybe we will get a sofa back when they are teens and want to hang out with friends in there.

We have one, but it's the 'diner' part of an open plan lounge/diner so DC can see us in the lounge and to an extent in the kitchen as well. Various friends with completely separate playrooms have all said that DC will only stay in there if one them goes in there too.

A dumping ground for toys is not necessarily a bad thing though if you have space. It keeps them out of the grown-up living space without having to tramp everything back upstairs to bedrooms.

Mine did a bit when young, but we had all their elaborate Playmobil setups there... then there's a bit of a lull period where they didn't and now we could really use a teenage snug/den type setup (but I'm not giving up my craft room for them to have it) just because of the layout of the house being how it is.

Toys still ended up everywhere but that's possibly cos my kids are a bit feral.

When ours were younger we had a day time living room and an evening living room. A full playroom didn't really work as our DC wanted to be near us so the daytime room was a mix of both. It meant once the kids went to bed we could just shut the door and have the evening in a tidy space with no visual clutter.

I've seen it work where the playroom basically becomes an "informal lounge" and the family spend all their time there in the day with the lounge becoming more of a formal space where toys are discouraged or allowed only in a minimal way, so adults might go there at night once the children are in bed.

If you expect young children to go and play in a playroom on their own, I think it's a non-starter.

Our does. But our DDs (7&4) play together quite nicely so are happy to go in there and play. Plus our 4 year old has always been very good at playing on her own as well.

I think it just depends on the children.

Yes, we have one downstairs that would be a formal dining room (dining table in kitchen), and it works well. My DD is 4 and it is mostly just a great place to store toys, but it is excellent when she has friends/cousins over because they tend to stay in there. I imagine as she gets older, it'll turn into more of a den where she can do homework/watch tv etc but for now is a tech free zone.

Mine opened to the lounge with sliding double doors, so when they were open is was more like 1 room than 2.
All toy storage was in the playroom and most play activity took place in there with some overspill to the lounge - and train tracks running in a loop through both rooms and into the hall & kitchen!
Worked really well for my 2 boys, and became more of a den space with a sofa bed, TV & games console as they got older.

We had one. The boys shared a small bedroom and we used the larger one as a playroom. Toy storage and a place to leave out things like the railway or farm or cars for several days.
They still brought toys downstairs but we limited how long they cpuld be left out.
They're now at secondary and have their own rooms

We have a playroom and I love it. Yes it is a bit of a dumping ground for toys and they do tend to drag stuff into the living room also however I’d much rather somewhere to shut the door on that having it all in the living room! Neither of mine are the types to play in their rooms so it means they are downstairs with us. As they get older we’ve put a sofa in there and it’s almost a separate living area/snug.

No, they become dumping rooms for all sorts of tat and the kids use it as storage so will take toys and bring take them elsewhere such as the lounge as they like to plays where people are.

My friends have one and it’s been lovely as the kids got older to have a separate space for them to hang out with friends.

Yes, like others ours is the 'formal dining room' room, but we prefer a table in the kitchen to make that a kitchen-diner, so it's our playroom.

Totally agree that when they're small they just want to be with you, but I really liked having a totally kid-friendly toy room where I could go and play with them. I guess it depends what kind of people you are - if there's a tv, we'll probably end up putting it on, and then it gets watched / distracting during playing. So I found it nice to have a room where there was no screen, and I could 'lean in' to playing more. We used the Alexa in there a lot to play music (either loudly or in the background) while playing.

Now mine are older (all primary school, but at the top and bottom ends, plus middle), we have put a tv in there, along with a big sofa (charity shop though, so not expensive). It gets used when the kids want to watch different things, and works nicely.

Also, we've put desks along one wall for all three of them, which has worked out well. They like to use them for colouring / crafting, etc. and the older ones like doing that while I'm on the floor playing with the youngest.

Agree with others, also, about shutting the toys away somewhere. My middle child, in particular, is a massive fan of 'setting up' things - one week there's a big Sylvanian street with all the accessories and animals out, and it stretches across the room and she plays with it everyday and it can't be moved; and then the next week it's Lego central, or Barbie city, or towers / zoos using blocks and animals. They'd never get to make those (and then keep them out for a week) in the living room.

Gradually it will become a more tween den and be like a second living room that has desks and board games. But not for a few more years.

Our playroom is one half of our open plan kitchen/dining room (so I suppose an older family would use it as a dining area) and the dcs love playing there. It worked I think because I'd often be in the kitchen (we have an island there where we eat, or I'd be cooking or cleaning) so they would still be in the room with us. I don't think they would have gone off to a completely separate room to play, certainly not as toddlers.

Toys still end up all over the house though, they play everywhere, including their bedroom, our bedroom, bathroom, and living room!

We have a tiny playroom and it is mostly full of toys and is such a pain to clean up! I think it depends on the flow of the house, though, I can see where if it became a more informal living space it could have huge benefits from toddlerhood to teenage years where it might be more of a music kit/friends hangout/gaming space?

We had one when I was a child. We played there and not in the rest of the house.

Great as long as you aren't just expecting your kids to play on their own out of the way all the time. It's good that they can do an elaborate train track or be halfway through a boardgame and go back to it later.

The room evolves with the DC, ours was mainly trains, then an art studio, then lego and mechano, now really a hang out zone with sofa, TV, games consoles and a corner for weights.

@BreezyClouds , we played on our own. Both parents worked from home so we ate all meals as a family.
The benefits were we never got bored, we didn't have screens - we read or did creative things, and we don't snack.

Downside, it was not in this millennium.

No, just a dumping ground for toys - but useful for that as you can close the door on the mess and not have everything in the living room!

Small dc will play where the adult is.
As they get to the stage of playing independently, they tend to play in their bedrooms.

So, if you were asking 'shall we build an extension to have a play room?' I'd say no. But, as your dh is going to wfh upstairs, and the room will be empty, then you've nothing to lose by setting it up as such if you wanted to.

At that age mine wouldn't - but once they were older, they shared a bedroom, and we used the second bedroom as a tween playroom - ie their computer/console and ipads lived in there. It was good, as it kept their enthusiastic playing behind a door I could shut (I monitored their access in other ways), and they didn't monopolise the living room TV. It also meant they got in the excellent habit of not having their ipad overnight, so it wasn't tempting to them to stay up late when they got older.

I only split them back into a bedroom each and no playroom once he eldest hit GCSE-age and needed quiet/distraction/younger-brother-free space to study.

I love mine. It's great to have a place for toy storage, where train tracks can stay out, and you can have lego builds progressing etc.

Mine are 4,7,7. Sometimes they will play altogether in there, it's good to have an extra space to separate them if fighting, and one of the older ones often likes going in there to build stuff (lego, knex etc).

Mine don't really play in their bedrooms much yet. When they're older, we might make it into more of a den with a TV, possibly into a fitness room for me and any of them that are interested!