Is the small house movement anti-family?

Is the Small House Movement Anti-Family?

“I've grown weary of green housing alternatives being decidedly anti-family.” I ran across this comment while reading an article about an award-winning small house in Wisconsin. While many of the innovative tiny houses featured in the small house movement are clearly designed for single residents, does that make them anti-family? Does not having kids make a person anti-family?

In fact, Little House on a Small Planet (the best book I’ve found on living in small houses) shows several examples of families with children living quite happily in minimal spaces. You only have to go back a generation or two to find small family houses. The house I live in right now is 900 square feet, and the previous owners raised two children here. This was not unusual in that generation. When I was growing up, the family next door had ten children in a house of about 800 square feet plus a finished basement.

The Small House Society states flatly that “size is relative.” The group’s members “might include families of five happy in an arts and crafts bungalow, multifamily housing in a variety of forms, and more extreme examples, such as people on houseboats and in trailers with just a few hundred square feet around them. . . . It’s not a movement about people claiming to be ‘tinier than thou’ but rather people making their own choices toward simpler and smaller living however they feel best fits their life.”

So, what’s wrong with designing houses for single people or couples? Do all living spaces have to accommodate children? According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of American households with children under 18 living at home last year hit the lowest point — 46% — in half a century. Shouldn’t our housing stock fit the population?

It seems to me that the commenter above may have identified an underserved market. She or some other enterprising person should start her own blog about simple living with kids. Meanwhile, houses get bigger, with mini-kitchens in the master suite and a bathroom and laundry room for every bedroom. The people who live there never have to see one another or spend time together. Now, that’s anti-family.

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