Going home

What does your home mean to you? Where do you count as home? Is it YOUR home or somewhere different?

I know some people who will say “I’m going back home this weekend” – by which they mean going back to their parents’ home and perhaps the house they grew up in.

At what point do you think that switches and “home” becomes the place you live day-to-day?

When I was at university my parents sold our family home and moved to France. Looking back I remember it being an odd time in many ways as uni friends would “go home” for the holidays. Whilst I went to France in the holidays it somehow didn’t feel like going home, and I wasn’t able to pop back at weekends like some of my friends.

Where we are together

These days home is very much where my family and I live. It’s home because we made it like that. It’s home because we all live here together and it’s home because it is our safe and happy place to come back to.

We love travelling as a family, but we equally love being at home as a family, because as much as we have some wonderful adventures, there’s no place like home! Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz was spot on!

How about you? Is your home just somewhere you shelter, or is it your sanctuary away from the rest of the world?

A home from home?

Do you think it’s possible to have a home-from-home as well? At university I took things from my home where I lived with my parents and brother, to make my university room more “homely”. When we travel, we often opt for self catering over a hotel, for the same reason really – it’s more practical and more like home, which often means everyone is more relaxed.

Just walls and a roof?

Whilst a house might just be walls and a roof, a home is so much more. Furnishings and the interior changes we make can help to make it “homely”, but for me that’s still not enough to make it a home. A home is somewhere we feel we belong. Somewhere we laugh and love and cry, but somewhere we all feel safe. Somewhere we can go to, when other aspects of our lives are finished for the day. The place our families grow, the place we eat meals together and the place we invite our friends and extended family to join us for get-togethers.

What happens when we move house?

Moving house can be extremely stressful, but whilst things can feel topsy turvy for a while, we have to try and remember that the “home” part doesn’t change the same as the house does.

We might be swapping the walls and a roof for different walls and roof, and it might not be quite how we want it for a while BUT if the people and the feelings are the same, it doesn’t have to change as much as we sometimes worry it might. Just be sure to get the roof checked by a roofing company.