Enough Toys

One of my closest friends (who is also my cousin) lives in a multi-generational household spanning four generations. I have an incredible amount of respect for this lifestyle, and I am in awe of those who can make it work.

As you can probably imagine, they do not live in a tiny house. Their home is quite large and is the place where everyone in the extended family gathers.

It is one of my girls' favorite places in the world. There are so many rooms and toys and new, exciting things to do and play.

I won't lie: sometimes I wonder if we would do better by our children if we had more space for so many fun things. I know that there are a lot of great ways to raise children.

What if we could have chosen a better way?

Then I remember some of the great things about living small:

• We don't have the room to collect anything but the best. We have to truly weigh the value of every toy that comes through our door.
• Fewer toys are less overwhelming and foster a better development of the imagination.
• It only takes about five minutes to pick up all of the toys in our small home.
• Keeping the number of toys to a minimum is probably a lot easier for us than it is for them. I know that my friend feels like they have too many toys, but it really is true that you grow to fill the space you have available to you. 

In the end, I know that our simple lifestyle will teach our children how to value the important things in life much as living in such an amazing generation-spanning environment will reap huge benefits for my cousin's children. There will always be positives and negatives for every lifestyle choice. It's up to us to make the most of the road we take, whatever that may look like for us individually.

As long as our children are healthy, reasonably happy, hard-working, compassionate, and well loved, I think we're doing just fine.