I grew up as a bedroom child.
Not in a sad, shut-off sort of way because it was just how things were.
You went to your room after school.
It was your space, your escape, your everything – with the Simple Plan posters and all.
The living room was for the grown-ups, and if you were there, you were either watching the TV quietly or being told to tidy something up.
Now, decades later, I look around my own home with the laptop on the coffee table, my child building a some magnetic blocks – and I realise: our generation is parenting in a completely different layout.
And it’s not just about the floor plan.
Why Families Are Living Differently Now
There’s been a real shift in how families move around their homes, especially since working from home became less of a temporary arrangement and more of a lifestyle.
And while some of it is driven by choice, a lot of it is driven by necessity.
Let’s be honest, childcare is expensive.
Plus, it is also sometimes completely inaccessible, and not to mention unsafe.
Between rising daycare and nursery fees, limited spaces for intakes, and the emotional tug of outsourcing care, many of us have chosen to keep our kids close, simply because it’s what works and they’re too precious.
But keeping them close also means inviting them into our working world and suddenly, the living room becomes everything.
It’s the office, the school, the snack station, the race track, the art studio, and occasionally, if we’re really lucky, the nap zone.
The Beauty and the Mayhem of Shared Space
There’s something quite lovely about our little children growing up seeing their parents in real life, not just as the adults that know everything, but as people.
They hear how we speak to our colleagues, how we recover from a bad meeting, how we keep going when things feel heavy.
They’re watching, all the time. And in that, there’s opportunity for connection, for modelling emotional resilience, and for shared little moments that might not happen if we were all in separate rooms.
But, let’s not romanticise it too much.
It’s also very noisy, very messy and completely exhausting some days.
And there’s the constant balancing act: trying to be available to everyone while still carving out time to be productive.
There are days I’ve gone two days with barely any solid food (thank you meal replacements) and that is not in any way productive, but it happened.
Are Our Kids Better Off This Way?
That’s the million-ringgit question, isn’t it?
Some children thrive with their parents nearby.
They feel secure, emotionally grounded, and more open to learning or helping.
Others, especially as they get older start to crave privacy and independence, and a constantly occupied living room can feel stifling.
It’s not one-size-fits-all.
But many psychologists agree that what matters most isn’t the layout of the home, but the emotional availability of the people in it.
And working from the living room when it works allows for those little in-between moments that little children treasure such as: mini eye contact across the room, a ‘give me a minute and I’ll be with you’ smile or a quick book read over snack.
It’s proximity parenting.
Not perfect, not always peaceful but very memorable.
Can Parents Actually Get Work Done?
Well, yes. And no.
Some days flow like magic and you wonder if you’ve only ever overreacted.
Others feel like trying to run a marathon in a mud pit.
Fact of the matter is, it depends on the kind of work you do, the age of your children, and how much support you have around you.
Working from home with kids is not the same as having childcare.
It’s multitasking at its most intense.
There’s no clean divide between roles – you’re everything, anything all at once.
And it takes some serious planning and patience to survive it.
Making Shared Spaces Work (Without Losing Your Mind)
Designing a space that works for both grown-ups and little ones doesn’t have to mean a full-blown renovation.
In our home, it was less about giving things up and more about rethinking what mattered.
We shifted things around, made peace with imperfection, and found alternatives that worked for the whole family.
Antiques didn’t disappear – they were simply relocated or made accessible only under full supervision.
The living area, once a semi-formal space, is now a wide, carpeted stretch where everything happens.
It’s where work meetings collide with snack time, and where dinosaurs, cars, magnetic tiles, and laptops comfortably co-exist.
We’ve become big fans of rattan baskets which are perfect for tossing in toys at the end of the day – and closed-door cabinets for everything that’s better hidden away.
Everything has its place now, and most things are labelled to make tidying up a team effort.
It didn’t happen overnight.
In fact, it’s taken a few years through my transition from flexible arrangements working mum, to stay-at-home mum during COVID, and now back to working-from-home again before the house finally settled into a rhythm.
And even now, it shifts as we do.
Closer Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Easier
This new way of family living? It’s far from perfect. It’s rarely tidy. Almost never quiet.
But it’s something that feels close and can sometimes feel a little too close – if I am being honest.
And yet, always full of life. We’re raising our children right in the middle of it all now.
They’re not watching from a distance or tucked away in their rooms.
They’re in it – living, learning, absorbing every moment.
They’re seeing how we cope, how we laugh, how we reset.
And without even realising it, they’re building their own blueprint for what home feels like.
So, is it easier? Not even close!
But if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s this: our children won’t grow up calling it ‘my parents’ home.’
They’ll call it ‘ours’.
Because it was always theirs, too.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice from Motherhood. For any health-related concerns, it is advisable to consult with a qualified healthcare professional or medical practitioner.
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