Family Fun Rooms

Family fun room, most of the time at my house, that would be an oxymoron. More often than not our family fun room was the epicenter room. The room where my children and I would rumble. Our rumbles could include school work, done or not done, car use, grounded or not grounded and outfits, appropriate or inappropriate. This does not even touch the very sensitive topic of who they were allowed to hang out with and why or why not.  
 
The list goes on and on and any parent can fill in the rumble topic blanks any day of the week. The point is at least we can have a room that looks like a space where a family can build fond memories of movie nights and game days.  
 
So, what constitutes a fabulous family fun room aside from the family? To begin with, the room like your family doesn’t have to be perfect, but like your children it can be perfectly beautiful. It can be a mix of old and new just like the family. Moms and dads are the old, (some older than others). Consider the children the new, this includes pets. 
 
Like your children the room can be spontaneous and colorful. Think of the spontaneity of children, I really do believe this is what keeps them safe. How can you stay angry with a little boy who artfully hides his homework, so it can’t be checked, then uses those same crafty little arms to hug you around neck and tell you are the best and prettiest mom in the whole world?
 
Your family fun room should do that, too. This is especially important on those days when that same precious little boy, a few years later, tells you about the slight fender bender he just had, which of course was someone else’s fault. And how unfair the policeman was, just because the other party happened to be an adult.  
 
During these testing times the family fun room needs to step up and love and hug on you. It must have plenty of pillows and throws so you can swaddle yourself while you think about how you are going to keep his grandmother from finding out about his court date. 
 
Above all, like your family the family fun room needs to evolve and grow. It needs to take on the personality of the family. Are you a demonstrative group or a more sedate crowd? Or are you like most of us a family made up of both?  
 
The room needs to be able to bear the scars of living. Tables could have a distressed top so that the extra ding or water ring only adds to the character. The lamps should be tall, ample and made of something other than glass because they could hit the floor. Have plenty of pillows and scrumptious rugs around, because three teenagers could show up at curfew to spend the night and now the ffr must serve as a dormitory.  Word is their moms know where they are.
 
The list could go on, the point is one day one of your children or one of their friends who crashed at the house (a lot) will say to you, “I have always loved this room”.
 
 Congratulations on a job well done!