Parents of Teens with Small Homes

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babochka said:
We’ve got a small house (8 people in 1600 square feet) and a big yard. We just ordered a screen room to put in the backyard to give the kids an additional place to hang out.

The biggest problem around here (for my teens) is annoying younger siblings. They can’t play a board game without the 3-year-old wanting to get into it.
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This sounds like us! 😁
Edit: except I can’t do basic counting…we are only 6 people so far. “So far” isn’t meant to be charged in any particular direction.
 
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semper_catholicus said:
What do you mean by “small home?”
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Point taken. Small is relative. It didn’t feel small when we bought it but a doctor also left me thinking I would have trouble having kids. Rather blessed she was wrong.

1700 square feet…allegedly. One story with 2 toilets for 6 people. (One ill timed stomach virus will ruin us. I should really get some camping potties before it’s too late.) 3 bedroom. No real zones the way it is laid out. We are all on top of eachother( figuratively sometimes literally) most days.

It’s home. I love it and am grateful for it.
 
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I grew up in a house like that with two other brothers. It had a basement, but it was only two rooms and a bathroom. We got too crammed, so we moved out to a bigger three story house. I’m still living at this house, because I’m still a teen. I didn’t/don’t really have many friends over. Don’t really know if I can help you.
 
So…you want to be the neighborhood orphanage! That’s what a friend of mine called her house. She had an above ground pool, so every summer, EVERYONE came over. She welcomed them gratefully.

Covering your back porch (get a ceiling fan)and getting a foosball table would be a great idea along with giant Jenga, a table for general games, etc… Teens just want to ‘hangout’ together and not necessarily be divorced from adults. The general attraction would be food and a decent place to sit and socialize.
 
Honestly, our basement oscillated between being hot as blazes because of the wood stove heating the house or ice cold. My brothers and their friends still loved it.

But really, many didn’t have great family lives. They chatted with my mom while she sliced veggies for supper, they swept the garage for my dad when he was tinkering with the car. Having 3 brothers and being in a place where there was often someone tagging along as a sibiling of a friend meant that sometimes they did hang out with my parents.

And many of those now-adults consider it some of their fondest memories.

Do provide some food—healthy or whatever–and love. Let them know they are wanted. If they get the message, they will come.
 
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