Men Need Their Space

My eldest son Greg just a signed a purchase agreement on a home located in a village near here. Now, instead of indulging his semi-nomadic life of living from lease to lease in various apartments, he may soon become a homeowner at the ripe old age of 26.

What does this mean for me? For one, I can finally move out all his old belongings that he's stored here for years. For instance, there's a couple old road signs that used to hang in his room. They're official highway signs. One says Speed Limit 45. The other, No Parking This Side of the Street. I'm not even sure it was legal to buy them. I bought them at his request from a flea market vendor.

When he gets his house, the signs can adorn his space. I told him he must claim an area of the house to be "his space." His wife-to-be (they're set to marry next May) can visit, clean it, whatever, but he needs to decorate and furnish it to suit his taste. Probably a poster of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model wouldn't be such a good idea. Maybe a full-sized poster of Tom Brady or something like that instead.

"Every man needs his own space in a house," I said. It could be a study, a workshop, part of the garage, or maybe a little den with a bar or poker table. Just something that says, "Guy space."

I mentioned this to my sister-in-law when we were at her house recently and she responded, "Just where is my space then?" I waved my arms to indicate that the kitchen was her domain. She didn't seem to embrace that suggestion.

Do women really need private space of their own? I honestly don't know. Not like guys do, I think. I mean, women don't have the equivalent of hunting camps do they?

Wendy has a separate room of her own down the basement, across from my study. At various times, we've both called it a sewing room but right now we use it for storage basically.

Our youngest son Scott still has his own bedroom here. Though he comes home less frequently with each passing year, it remains pretty close to the way it did when he was attending high school. It's still his space. Among his collections are posters of his favorite Simpsons characters, a baseball cap collection and various stuffed animals from his younger years.

Men having our own space is part of our nature. Look at it from a historical perspective, from the pyramids of Egypt right down to the Oval Office in the White House. When you think of it, it's all a way of man claiming his own space.

Well, it's late and I need to finish this and go to bed. Speaking of space issues, my wife has been claiming that I have been taking up more than my share of space in bed lately, I try to stay on my side but sometimes I sprawl when I sleep. I could just show her this blog to justify my need for space, even when I sleep. But I better be careful. Greg's old bedroom is empty now. I don't want it to become my new space.