As young kids, my sister and I would often take our toys out of our bedrooms into the communal spaces of our childhood home. We’d use the couch as a pretend bus, the dining table as a pretend hotel. Save for the kitchen, no shared area of the house was off-limits to us, as long as we tidied the toys up afterward. We only ever used our bedrooms for sleep.
Recently, TikTok creators have been talking about the joys of being a part of a “living room family” — as opposed to a “bedroom family,” where kids hang out in their bedrooms instead. In many of the TikToks shared, creators break down how they think families foster these two kinds of family dynamics and how they influence kids’ behavior.
According to TikTok, “living room” kids are very comfortable in shared spaces in the house, so they spend a lot of their time there. They may do their homework at the dining table, even if they have a desk in their room. They may bring their crafting hobby into the living room without feeling anxious that their parents are there, too.
In contrast, they imply that “bedroom” kids feel discomfort in shared spaces and much prefer retreating to their own rooms to do their hobbies or schoolwork. They feel like they may be judged or involved in conflict when they are in the same area as their parents, some TikTokers say.
