Thinking of moving: What do you find to be the best and most frustrating features for a home to have when you have kids?

On the flip side we have older kids (youngest is 10 and the rest teens) and we love our split level. All our primary use spaces (living room, dining room, kitchen, entry way) are on the main level where you enter (we don't have stairs at the entrance, or to our backyard). Our basement is a huge rec area for the kids, perfect for them to have friends over, and where we all gather for movie or game nights. It's separate enough for the kids to feel like they've got space but not so separate we aren't aware what's going on (from the kitchen we have a straight view down into the room). All the bedrooms are upstairs on one level, which limits night time shenanigans teens can get up too. I had the split floor plan as a teen with me one side of the house and parents on the other... and oh the fun I had. My kids will never get that.

Total we have 13 stairs in the house which isn't more than most 2 story homes, and usually you are going up one set (6 or 7 stairs) of them at a time (from the basement to the main level or bedroom to main level). I can see how the layout wouldn't be ideal with young kids. But with older kids it's perfect for us. Everyone's got their own space, but it's still easy to keep tabs on everyone. And we've got some nice spaces for the whole family to be together. Also it's so quiet! Our last home was a single story with hardwood floors throughout. It echoed like crazy and was so loud when all my boys were home. This home still has hardwood floors but the split design makes it much quieter. Something about the space division also makes it stay much cleaner than our old house. On the single floor everything spread into each other. Here any mess is usually contained to the basement or a kids room and the main level always looks nice (which is good because that the area that people who drop by tend to see).

/r/Parenting Thread