The \u201cOpen Concept\u201d in house design is all the rage. Kitchen \u2013 Dining \u2013 Living, all in one big open space. You see it on \u201dHGTV\u201d \u2013 on \u201cThis Old House\u201d and just about everywhere that living space is the topic. This new way to live is hip! I like it, but it has some drawbacks.<\/p>\n
Back in \u201cThe Day\u201d the kitchen was a food prep area \u2013 the dining room was an eating space, and the living room was the sitting around space for reading, watching TV, and socializing. If you were lucky there was a rumpus room in the basement, a place to send the kids to get them out of your hair. <\/p>\n
A typical family gathering found the women in the kitchen in those days, helping the \u201chostess,\u201d swapping gossip, and complaining about the \u201clumps\u201d in the living room. The lumps sat around watching sports on TV and discussing the routes they took to get there. Often disagreeing with each other\u2019s choices. <\/p>\n
It worked great! Both sexes liked the set-up. When mealtime came they merged together in the dining room, except for the kids who were shuffled off to a card table out of the way. When asked about the topics discussed in their separate quarters, the women said \u201crecipes;\u201d the men said \u201cworld politics.\u201d <\/p>\n
That dynamic is lost with the open concept. New lines of communication have developed. Better or not? I don\u2019t have a clue. I find when I exaggerate something, embellish a story, I get corrected by my wife when we\u2019re all together in an open concept environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, so there weren\u2019t a thousand people in line at the DMV; there were six. But it was still a painful wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
My tales have lost their umph. Sometimes couples end up not speaking by the time they leave the gathering. It might have something to do with the high divorce rate in this country. <\/p>\n