What Makes a Home a Home?

When thinking of a home what comes to mind first? Many people would start describing a home with windows, walls, doors, floors, a roof, and a loving family inside. This may not always be the case though. Like many other words in the English language, home can have many meanings. There are also many contributing factors as to why people think of a home as they do. The biggest factor that affects someone's thoughts of what a home is, is how they grew up. This would include their surrounding environment, family, friends, and how either their biological parents or who ever was a parent figure in their life brought them up.

When thinking of a home many people say location is key. Location can determine a lot of things. For one, it could change the meaning of a home for many people. People who live a poor lifestyle moneywise have a different idea as someone who lives middle class lifestyle and even more different from someone who lives a higher-class lifestyle. This means that all three of their ideas of home are different, not only because of their class status but also because all of these lifestyles have different environments that the people encounter. For someone of a higher status their home may be a room in their house they enjoy spending time in, for someone of a poor class their home may be spending time away from their actual house and either outside some where or where ever they find peace with themselves.

Another huge contributor to what people think a home is would be their family and friends. Someone who lives with a healthy and loving family would be more likely say that a home to them would be with their family or even just in their actual house in general. But, someone who lives in an unhealthy living situation with their family, whether it be abusive or just not a good living situation, may say that home is not at all where they actually live. This is where friends would also play a big role. When someone is uncomfortable at home they may look to their friends as the closest thing they have to a family. So this means that a home to them may be spending time with their friends or even someone else's actual home.

Lastly, the third biggest factor would be how the person was raised. When thinking of a family people usually think of the typical family, a father, a mother and a few children, but this is not the case for many families now a days. The definition of a family has changed throughout the years. This generation is a lot more accepting for a family to be one parent, two moms, or two dads. Being raised by not so typical family types can change a person's thoughts of a home. They may have different views, which would give them all different ideas of what a home is. Some of them may be raised in a too strict home and consider home to be a friend's where their parents are not so strict. Or they may be raised in a loud home so where they feel at home could be a quiet place. All these different living situations contribute to how someone feels about what and where they feel at home most.

Every culture has different views on every topic. Even something as simple as a home can have a variety of meanings for many people. Growing up in different locations causes people to have different lifestyles from one another, which creates more than one definition for many words in the English language. The definition of a home changes between each individual because of their biggest contributing factor, location.

By Betsy Barrows  |   

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Betsy_Barrows

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