Communal living
Pros/Cons of communal living for me:
Cons:
1) I often feel the need to be in control of my immediate surroundings (the space I'm presently occupying) and can sometimes be overbearing -which causes my friends to resent my attitude (rightfully).
2) I have a son who is impressionable and may grow into a hippie/weirdo if we live with my friends in a college town for 2 years.
3) Financial situations can often be challenging to friendships.
4) If we sign a lease of any type and then cease getting along; we're stuck with it.
5) More people in the place = more of their friends and could end up being a conflict when I'm looking for a quiet space to study.
Pros:
1) Money, money, money. I could save more than a hundred dollars a month.
2) I often get lonely and sometimes (not always) being a single parent makes me feel completely unwanted and afraid. Having people in my dwelling with me would be an emotional comfort and help me to find fellowship when I'm feeling scared and vulnerable.
3) Sharing the money and the work would help me feel less like the world is on my shoulders with regards to raising and supporting a family alone.
4) Living with *close friends* would enable me, in a dire emergency, to beg one of them to watch my offspring for short periods if I need something at the store, etc.
5) The more of us pitch in, the more money we'll have to pay rent: the 4-5 bedroom houses and apartments I've looked at online are SWEET. If I had my own room, and Sebastian HIS own room -I'd actually have my own space for the first time in YEARS.
6) The other option I have right now in Dekalb is the University Apartments which, although listed as a one bedroom, could fit entirely into my present living room. The whole place is less than 400 square feet. Tile floors, like in grade school, and cinder block walls.
7) The option I refuse to consider (as long as I have a choice) is to commute from Rockford. SUCKASS.
8) Seeing as how my child and I are alone (and doing fine) I think it might be nice for him to have a family dynamic. It won't be the typical family, but it would be a social situation within which he could learn about relations between people and not just from me alone. Children sometimes need different interactions to learn about.
9) I love to cook for people, and I love to eat with people (I'm sure endlezzdream can relate): the roommates would be guinea pigs for my cooking and vice versa. We could actually have a meals together once in a while.
10) To have other people around would provide me with the much-needed "fun" social interactions I often find myself very short on. Living with my father, very few people want to hang at my place. Only my close friends will even visit, and I often can't leave -I have a baby who needs a consistent schedule of sleep and such. If I had roommates, I could put the baby to bed and still have visitors. I could have someone to talk to at night and wouldn't be able to go into hermit mode (which very well may happen if I'm living alone away from family and having a busy schedule).
In conclusion, I'd be happy either with or without roommates, but I really feel like I'd feel safer and more emotionally stable with them.
Also, in my own defense -my OCD has seldom caused issues with roommates. I won't say never, but in cases like when a certain LJ user who nay-sayed our moving in idea stayed with me and brought his fleet of cooking stuff into my studio apartment I tend to get territorial.
When I look back at all the roommate situations I've had, the common cause of most problems that were had involved a sexual relationship which was a.) the reason for the living arrangments or b.) the deciding factor on ending the living arrangements.
So, although my friends all think I'm a power-mongering bitch, they are failing to see who I am now. Yes, I want to be respected and have a certain amount of control over MY situation; but I do not want to manipulate or bully anyone else.
Cons:
1) I often feel the need to be in control of my immediate surroundings (the space I'm presently occupying) and can sometimes be overbearing -which causes my friends to resent my attitude (rightfully).
2) I have a son who is impressionable and may grow into a hippie/weirdo if we live with my friends in a college town for 2 years.
3) Financial situations can often be challenging to friendships.
4) If we sign a lease of any type and then cease getting along; we're stuck with it.
5) More people in the place = more of their friends and could end up being a conflict when I'm looking for a quiet space to study.
Pros:
1) Money, money, money. I could save more than a hundred dollars a month.
2) I often get lonely and sometimes (not always) being a single parent makes me feel completely unwanted and afraid. Having people in my dwelling with me would be an emotional comfort and help me to find fellowship when I'm feeling scared and vulnerable.
3) Sharing the money and the work would help me feel less like the world is on my shoulders with regards to raising and supporting a family alone.
4) Living with *close friends* would enable me, in a dire emergency, to beg one of them to watch my offspring for short periods if I need something at the store, etc.
5) The more of us pitch in, the more money we'll have to pay rent: the 4-5 bedroom houses and apartments I've looked at online are SWEET. If I had my own room, and Sebastian HIS own room -I'd actually have my own space for the first time in YEARS.
6) The other option I have right now in Dekalb is the University Apartments which, although listed as a one bedroom, could fit entirely into my present living room. The whole place is less than 400 square feet. Tile floors, like in grade school, and cinder block walls.
7) The option I refuse to consider (as long as I have a choice) is to commute from Rockford. SUCKASS.
8) Seeing as how my child and I are alone (and doing fine) I think it might be nice for him to have a family dynamic. It won't be the typical family, but it would be a social situation within which he could learn about relations between people and not just from me alone. Children sometimes need different interactions to learn about.
9) I love to cook for people, and I love to eat with people (I'm sure endlezzdream can relate): the roommates would be guinea pigs for my cooking and vice versa. We could actually have a meals together once in a while.
10) To have other people around would provide me with the much-needed "fun" social interactions I often find myself very short on. Living with my father, very few people want to hang at my place. Only my close friends will even visit, and I often can't leave -I have a baby who needs a consistent schedule of sleep and such. If I had roommates, I could put the baby to bed and still have visitors. I could have someone to talk to at night and wouldn't be able to go into hermit mode (which very well may happen if I'm living alone away from family and having a busy schedule).
In conclusion, I'd be happy either with or without roommates, but I really feel like I'd feel safer and more emotionally stable with them.
Also, in my own defense -my OCD has seldom caused issues with roommates. I won't say never, but in cases like when a certain LJ user who nay-sayed our moving in idea stayed with me and brought his fleet of cooking stuff into my studio apartment I tend to get territorial.
When I look back at all the roommate situations I've had, the common cause of most problems that were had involved a sexual relationship which was a.) the reason for the living arrangments or b.) the deciding factor on ending the living arrangements.
So, although my friends all think I'm a power-mongering bitch, they are failing to see who I am now. Yes, I want to be respected and have a certain amount of control over MY situation; but I do not want to manipulate or bully anyone else.