Is your kitchen....

twizzlers1

Tue, Aug 04 2020, 4:39 pm

I live in Israel and my kitchen and living room are one big room. Well not actually that big. I love that it's all together because when everyone's hanging out whoever's in the kitchen isn't left out. In my last house they were separate rooms but even though the space is smaller I like it because everyone is together whether they're sitting at the table, cooking, or relaxing on the couch.one problem is is that it always looks like a mess since my kitchen is not usually spotless

amother

Green

Tue, Aug 04 2020, 4:45 pm

sort of. I have a daughter who struggles with her weight so I rather her not "hang out" in the kitchen near food. I also have a hard time doing anything when other people are walking around, hovering over me...

my kids are active, the kitchen isn't where I want them running, dancing....

but it is where we eat our meals during the week, I let my kids cook/bake in the kitchen and I expect them to unload the dishwashers...

We have a fairly large kitchen with seperate sides,
we also have an open layout so my kids can see from the dining/living room into the kitchen so they can feel close even if not in same room.

I think there are a lot of factors
layout both of house and kitchen
size
type of activities kids like to do
personality of mother
how much family cooks vs buys take out
to name just a few.

My kids playroom is very popular with them, as is our backyard, our living room/dining room, the bedrooms... basically I definitely feel we LIVE in our house lol!

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Aug 04 2020, 4:53 pm

Nope. My kitchen is too small to be the hub of the home, but my living room/dinning room is one big open space thats right near my kitchen. The living/dinning room is the hub of the home. Its where we like hanging out. Its where we always are, unless we are in our rooms.
I dont really remember the kitchen being the hub spot growing up either. It was either the dinning room or teh living room.

amother

Royalblue

Tue, Aug 04 2020, 5:20 pm

Yes. Mainly because it’s a large open space (largest room) and the kids hang around me when they come home from school as I finish cooking dinner. They can read and color and shmooze by the kitchen table, when they’re really young they bring small toys and dolls.

amother

Magenta

Tue, Aug 04 2020, 5:24 pm

I wouldn't say my home has a real "hub." But why does it have to? The kitchen is small with a poor layout that is not remotely conducive to socializing. I can have one friend sit at the table and shmooze while I'm puttering around, but once you have more than 2 people in there it no longer works. When we have company, we gather in the room that serves as both LR and DR, but most of the time it sits empty except when dh or I want to read or if I need a big surface to do paperwork. Dh works from home and spends close to 18 hours a day in the room he uses as an office, and now that I'm working from home during the pandemic I spend much of the day in the room I'm using as an office.

When we had young children living at home, the kitchen was as close to a hub as it got, since that was where we ate our weekday meals and did most of our science, baking, cooking and craft projects. I still wouldn't have described it as a "hub." I don't find decoratorspeak to be very helpful IRL.