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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"?

8 years ago by Bastou with 9 comments

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  • DrunkOldMan
    +7

    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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  • a7h13f
    +6

    I think /u/spaceghoti made a good point in the linked thread:

    Seriously, though. I would describe a home is wherever you go to relax and get away from the rest of the world. You may live in a house, but if you're not comfortable there it's not really home to you.

    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.

    • Appaloosa
      +5

      Hey, thanks for the side bar.

      • a7h13f
        +4

        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!)

  • Appaloosa
    +6

    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.

  • Bastou (edited 8 years ago)
    +6

    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.

    • a7h13f
      +5

      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.

      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).