What makes a "home"?
As proposed by /u/a7h13f in this discussion
"What makes a home?" I totally get that not everywhere a person lived would be considered their "home", but also I've had multiple places over the years that I would (at the time) have considered my home. So, what's the line between "Place that I live" and "Home"?
9 years ago by Bastou
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What about not so much a physical entity where you live,(4 walls, multiple rooms etc ) but could not a definition of a home also be who you are with, your wife (SO) kids, grandmother and so on. Would seem as long as you have your loved ones by your side a home could technically be anywhere as long as family was there with you. (Tent, shelter, apartment, cardboard box?????)
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I think /u/spaceghoti made a good point in the linked thread:
I think a home has to be a place you view as yours. So the shitty apartment that you're counting the days until you can leave obviously isn't one. Home also has implications of transience. The place I used to live used to be my home, but it's not anymore.
Hey, thanks for the side bar.
I can't take credit! Your comment is the one that generated this fascinating discussion, and /u/Bastou is the one who fired this thread up. (Hopefully, we can avoid further derailment of the other one hahaha!)
I have not lived "at home" for almost 30 years, and have lived in many different locations under various situations as both a young adult and older. That is idea of a home for me is as a child, not an adult. I was part of, gasp, a nuclear family with a mother and father, and that part of me is what forms my concept of home. It does not preclude nor exclude others. It is a statement of being.
I believe a "home" doesn't even have to be a house - some people refer to their city, region, or even country as home, maybe it also depends where they are when they say this.
In my personal dictionary, a home is simply the place where you're the most comfortable and relaxed, the place that drains your energy the least. [edit] And you really feel like you can be yourself.
That's an interesting concept, and one that's a bit unfamiliar to me! Personally, I couldn't wait to escape the small rural town I was raised in, so I don't think I ever considered it as home (well, I probably did in my younger childhood).