"I consider myself to be a highly observant person, but when I saw the latest TikTok trend about having a “living room family,” my eyes were opened to something I never thought about in my childhood and took for granted. What is a “living room family”? Essentially, it’s a family who wants to hang out together in one shared space. In living-room families, kids feel safe around their parents versus feeling like they have to hide out in their bedroom.
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I grew up in a living room family. My parents had a rule—no TVs in our rooms—so I thought our living room family was born out of necessity. My three brothers and I would often hang out together, watch after-school cartoons, or play Nintendo. I didn’t appreciate that shared experience at the time. As one commenter shared, “I thought living room family was normal 🥺.” But, from reading some of the thousands of comments from TikTok user @alexxx1915‘s now-viral video, many kids felt like they had to hide away in their rooms.
This 10-second TikTok had me and other users getting into our feelings about our childhoods and the ones we hope to create for our kids. Here’s what people are saying about the living room family TikTok trend.
Viral Video About Having a “Living Room Family”
In a TikTok video with over 25 million views and over 2.8 million likes, mom @alexxx1915 shared a pan of her living room. It’s seemingly a mess: toys abound, multiple kids watch TV, and a dog sits in the corner. There’s a lot of life happening in her living room. The text over the video reads, “I just learned the term ‘living room family’ and I never understood why my kids never play in their rooms when I always did as a kid.”
Reactions to the Living Room Family Trend
Not only does her video have over 17K comments, with reflections from living room kids, bedroom kids, and parents today, but her video sparked tons of reaction videos with people sharing their own living room family experiences. Here are some of the reactions and comments:
Reframing a Messy House
Messy gets a bad reputation. To me, a messy family home means piles of unorganized kids’ artwork, toys on the floor, and maybe an empty snack container or two in between the couch cushions. It’s messy, but it’s not dirty. And while clutter can cause stress, the living room family trend is helping parents reframe the mess as proof of kids and release the guilt of not having a picture-perfect home.
“I sometimes get annoyed when my kids drag their toys out everyday but looking at it from this perspective makes me more thankful”—@twistedtrippyart
“I’m not upset over toys in the living room now 🥹🥹 this is a great way to think”—❤️Patricia❤️
Bedroom Kids vs. Living Room Kids
There’s a balance to everything, right? And TikTok and social media like to label things as one or the other. But having a living room family doesn’t mean your kids don’t participate in independent play—something healthy for their development. It also doesn’t mean if your kids want to play in their room, you need to be concerned that they might be a “bedroom kid.”
Overall, I think most parents want their kids to feel safe to be themselves at home. But from reading the comments from some self-ascribed “bedroom kids” growing up, their room was their only safe space. And some have a hard time feeling comfortable in a shared space as adults. On the other hand, some who grew up as living room kids have a hard time being alone without companionship.
“my husband came from a living room family visiting his home where all his siblings are now 20+ and seeing them still be that always makes me so emotional he doesn’t understand how good he had it”—@bodacious back beans 🫘
“I was a bedroom kid and my children are definitely living room kids. It makes me sad to think about how lonely my childhood was 🥺”—Courtney
“Growing up as a bedroom kid and having a living room family is both very overwhelming and healing”—Mel🌙
“i definitely grew up in a living room family and really struggle with being home alone now… i NEED people around to feel comforted!”—Anonymous
Some People Had Both Experiences
Many families have parents with different parenting styles, and some commenters shared how their childhood experiences varied.
“When dad was home we could only make messes inside a box, when he was gone mamá let us do messes around the house. We just needed to clean when finish. She would help clean too in a fun way!”—@SystemNightmare
“From a divorced child’s perspective, my mom’s house was a living room family but my dad & stepmom’s very much was not”—Anonymous
Final Thoughts
Even though I grew up as a living room kid, sometimes I chose to hang in my room or play in our basement to avoid the overstimulation of three other siblings. I was lucky as a kid, and I hope I’m creating that same space for my children. And with one introverted child who enjoys playing alone in her room and another who likes a lot of social interaction, some days we’re a living room family, and some days we’re not. Every kid and every family is different, but I hope mine will always feel welcome in our entire home.
I should also note that my kids are also getting older so they stay up later, meaning sometimes my husband needs them to get out of our shared living room space so we can have a minute alone. Maybe we’ll need to become ‘bedroom parents’ now, who knows?
Kathy Sisson, Senior Editor
A mom of two, Kathy is passionately committed to sharing the honest, helpful—and often humorous—stories of motherhood, as she navigates her own everyday adventures of work, marriage, and parenting. She honed her creative and strategic skills at advertising agencies in Detroit and Chicago, before pivoting from marketing to editorial. Now instead of telling brand stories, she’s sharing her own, with articles published across popular parenting sites—including hundreds of stories on The Everymom.