Think back to when you were growing up...whose house did you play at the most? Yours? You can start by asking whose house had the basketball hoop, or the biggest yard, a pool table or better yet...a pool? Even today there's always one house where the snacks are top shelf, with exceptionally cool toys and always cold beverages. At times ours was that house. Around the time I was 11 or 12 I played a lot of football in my back yard, well, practiced a lot of football. When it came to be game time against a nearby street's team we needed a larger yard. We would find one in the yard on the school grounds or near a Church. That location was short-lived. Like my Dad and our yard, the church council wasn't too keen on us leaving divots in the yard. You see none of us owned a kicking tee so we made our own by driving our heal into the ground to create a place to prop up the football. I remember a friend who got a video game system called PONG. We played that for hours. One friend had an amazing collection of toy soldiers. Yet another, while not having their own pool, had a pool membership. Just as good as far as I was concerned.
Some of the same criteria was used when deciding whose house should host the sleep over. A tent took the experience to the next level and best yet was a clubhouse. Good times, indeed!
Now-a-days it's not all that different. A recent survey ( by SWNS) found that 67% of parents said they want their house to be the “cool house” for their kids and their friends. And 63% of the parents surveyed said their house already was the cool house.
The same survey asked parents to reflect on their own childhoods and what made a house cool. Here’s what they said were the Top 10 signs of a cool house:
- Good snacks -- 49%
- Video games -- 38%
- Cable TV - 38%
- Pool -- 34%
- Different toys than I had -- 33%
- Board games -- 33%
- Big backyard -- 31%
- A dog/pet to play with -- 29%
- Siblings to play with -- 27%
- Trampoline -- 24% (SWNS)