The New York Times printed an article yesterday about a family who cut the size of their house to more than half the size.
Giving up a big house to conserve money can create conflict with children. Even with the oldest away in college many issues have come up regarding this change. The family downsized from 3000 square feet to a 1200 square foot rental.
This is temporary but the new home they are building will be about the same size.
Click here to read The New York Times Article “When Home Shrinks” by Harvey Araton.
Photo Credit: The New York Times
by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)
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Reading that article really shows how spoiled and selfish people are, and how much people are attached to things. Some of the families have lived in such large homes, that they don’t even sound like they were families, just people living together. When you live in a smaller house, you have to be a family and learn to get along with others and share space. Bigger is not better when it comes to a lot of things. I don’t think it is sad that people are having to downsize b/c of finances, but it is sad that they are so upset about having to live in a 1200 square foot home.
Wow. All I could think when I was reading about the one families kids’ reaction was – what spoiled brats. We are a family of five people (plus 3 cats and a large dog) living in just over 1000 square feet. We have a roof and a kitchen and bathroom. We are working on getting some form of heat in the house. My boys share a room. They are admittedly a lot younger than the 19 year old college student in the story, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with sharing a room with your sibling. It doesn’t mean you dont’ matter or that you dont’ ahve a space of your own. The only child in that family that seems to be thinking of the family instead of just themselves is the 12 yo. Sad. I hope my kids are more community and family oriented when they reach that age (yeah, I know – not typical for teenagers). Barbara Colorosa has this great line in one of her bokks that says that families need to focus on teaching their kids to think “It’s Us, It’s Ours, and It’s Enough” Instead of “Me, Mine and More”. Although I think these parents are doing what is right for their family now, they must have gone wrong in teaching this lesson along the way to their kids…
Yeah, boohoo, having to live in a 1,200 sf house while your other one’s being built?!
Made me realize I NEVER want my family in a big house to begin with if that is how the children turn out. (I’m sure there are many connected families in larger homes, but I can also see how easy it would be to become disconnected in a large space.) I loved growing up in a small house with my family. We were attached, communicated, and ENJOYED each other because we interacted so much.
Folks, please don’t be so hard on these children. They are simply being the way their parents raised them to be.
Yikes. Yeah, I’m with Penny. I hope my kids will be satisfied with what they have, because we will NEVER be able to afford a big house, even if we wanted one.
Boohoo. My husband and two kids and I just had to downsize from a 1200 sq foot house to an 800 sq foot house due to foreclosure. I’m quite comfortable in this amount of space.
LOL a perfect house for the Incredible shrinking woman…. or “Honey I Shrunk the House..”