Like many, my husband and I are fascinated with the tiny home movement. My husband is especially fascinated because he would love to personally build a tiny home and use it to travel. I on the other hand am certain my marriage and relationship with my children would suffer tremendously.
I have known for a long time that I have a significant need for alone and quiet time. Early in our marriage, my husband and I spent four days in New York City, and it was the non-stop togetherness surrounded by millions of others during the trip. When we returned, my husband offered to run errands with me, and I hurt his feelings by telling him that I needed to be alone. Thankfully, it is something he forgave me for, he has learned to give me alone time, and he recognizes my need for alone time is greater than his.
While our current home is not a tiny home by any means, it is at least half the size of the homes of most of our friends. Some of our friends have three times the amount of home. On consistent rainy and cold days, our house often feels significantly smaller. With three kids, I often feel like there is never alone or quiet time in our current 2,200 square foot home.
Reasons why we would not choose to live tiny:
Our kids: While many families are successfully managing tiny living with kids, I personally do not want to try it with our kids. The amount of things from church, grandparents, school, and other events that come into our current normal sized home is overwhelming. It is a struggle to maintain and constantly keep things to minimum where we currently live.
Quiet time: Our kids are on the younger side and are in bed by eight most nights. My husband and I enjoy a couple of hours of down time while they are bed. I fear a tiny home would feel like a small hotel room to us with the inability to have time together after our kids would go to bed.
The stuff: In our current home, everything must have a place and home for our house to be efficient. This is often difficult as our kids become larger and have their own ideas and try to push the boundaries we set for them. In a tiny home I imagine everything having a specific place is even more necessary, and I would fear that I would have to nag my kids more than I do now to put things in their place.
Although I would never choose the tiny living lifestyle long term with my family, there are days that a retreat to a tiny home to be alone is very appealing.
Writer Bio: Summer Bolte
I spend most of my time and days with my three kids, husband and dog. My kids frequently play near me as I garden, cook, DIY and volunteer. My most unusual paying job has to be feeding fruit flies in a research lab, and my most fulfilling job was being an oncology nurse for seven years.
