With TikTok being such a broad social media app, there are all kinds of people you can come across on it. Recently there has been a rise in the “RV life,” which is exactly what it sounds like– families who live in an RV and travel around the country. However fun it might look, these families are a bit controversial on TikTok.

The most obvious issue would be personal space and privacy, because they are living in such a close space.

Some families have “bedrooms” for their kids which are basically walk through hallways with bunks beds on either side. Not to worry, parents have put privacy curtains alongside the bed areas to make the kids feel more independent.

But because of this, these kids are essentially sleeping in a coffin sized area calling it their room. Parents who run the TikTok accounts to show off their way of life defend any comments about their kids having small rooms by saying where they really live is outdoors. While this is a nice sentiment, I still think privacy is really important especially if these families are traveling together constantly.

One specific TikTok account made a video about how they celebrated their oldest child’s 15th birthday.

The family checked into a hotel because the only thing their kid wanted was to spend a night in a hotel. A lot of people on TikTok saw this as a sign that they are not happy living in a constant state of traveling with no permanent home or real privacy.

Not to mention, with families constantly vlogging their kids I can only imagine they get even less privacy than families who do not do this.

In my opinion, the biggest issue I see with RV families is that some of them brand themselves as reinventing what it means to live in an RV.

They like to emphasize the fact that they are very different from what people would think of when they think of living in a trailer or an RV, meaning they are doing it in a classier way.

I saw a video talking about this saying they were not “trailer trash” and since they chose to live in a large RV and make it nice, they are essentially better than people who live in a trailer park because they have to.

Everyone is so quick to judge and look down on families that live in an RV until a family that is not living in poverty does it and makes it into an aesthetic. Because it was their choice and they had the money to buy a huge RV and decorate it with expensive appliances, they are automatically seen as being better than those who had no choice but to sell their house and live in a van.

I do not think it is right for content creators to brand themselves as being above other people living in an RV because they cannot afford to live anywhere else.

I think living in an RV to travel the country is a really cool idea but it is not always practical in terms of privacy, space and the social life and development for their kids.