Spending quality time as a family may seem like an impossibility for some, although it definitely does not have to be.

Busy schedules and simply not enough time in the day has made it difficult for many families to spend that quality time together that is essential to the health of any family unit.

But now home developers and regular homeowners are coming up with ways to make their home conducive with spending time with the whole entire family.

They are achieving this long sought after goal through a family room that is a workspace for all members of the family, not just a place to sit glued in front of the TV.

Creating a family room that doubles as a place where adults can get work done and kids can study and do homework definitely has its advantages and disadvantages though.

A recent article by Katie Goodloe from The Wall Street Journal Online, “Reinventing the family room: Bonding over work, not TV,” discusses the development of this new family room and how it works and does not work for certain families.

“In an effort to eke out more quality time, some families are designing group home offices in which parents and kids can work together. Some are renovating existing rooms, installing desks and laptop ports for every member of the family, while others are ordering them as custom-built options in new homes.”

“In its new Menifee, Calif., development, Capital Pacific Homes has a model outfitted with an ‘education space’; the bright yellow room can fit up to eight stools and has desks that adjust to adult and kid heights.”

Since this is a relatively new concept and design idea, it is hard to see how well it is going over so far. Basically families that have tried out this new type of family room seem to have mixed opinions on it.

“Some families say the shared workspaces help facilitate intergenerational bonding, with parents learning about YouTube and kids getting their first taste of Excel spreadsheets.”

“But others say the new spaces are counterproductive -- after all, it isn't easy talking to clients when your kids are doing vocabulary drills in the background. And kids say it's hard to concentrate with parents interrupting their Web searches to give them unsolicited grammar lessons.”

This new family room can be a great place to gather in a world of huge homes with different rooms spread out all over the property.

“Interior designers say the family home office is in part a backlash against the McMansion-fueled sprawl in recent years that ceded separate bathrooms, libraries and entire wings of the house to children -- essentially cutting them off from the rest of the family. In a September survey by the American Institute of Architects, the shared office was named the most popular ‘special-function room,’ before home theaters.”

And for working parents (who either work entirely from home, or who bring work home with them), these rooms are also a great way for them to keep an eye on their children when they are trying to get some work done.