When it comes to decorating your children’s children’s room, every parent with space and a little budget dreams at some point of building their child a small theme park.
I have seen with my own eyes beds shaped like a racing car, bunk beds that are like a cabin, furniture tuned to resemble a spaceship… In short, wonders that I wouldn’t even know how to get through the bedroom door.
And if you go on Instagram and search a little, you can find authentic sets that not even on the set of the Mandalorian.
But if you don’t get the money or you’re not handy, which is where most of us fall into these two options, don’t worry. Because all you need to develop your child’s fantasy is… a sofa.
Yes, really. If Loquillo wanted a truck to be happy, you can put endless smiles on your children’s faces with a simple sofa.
Because any sofa, especially if it has cushions that can be moved or removed, can be turned into a transformer of a thousand uses.
So looking back, ours has been: a pirate ship to navigate the wild seas full of dangerous creatures, a tree cabin in which to resist strong storms, a bank that can be docked, a school for stuffed animals to teach any class. subject, easy shelter for hiding, ninja trench from which to observe the world, tent adaptable to any gender, trampoline on which to jump and bounce to infinity and beyond, dry water slides, wrestling ring, punching bags with which to train or have passionate cushion fights…
The possibilities are endless. And if children have something, it is imagination and free time to be creative.
Almost four decades ago, my sister and I played every afternoon on the couch at home, until we ended up bursting all the springs. Today, my children do the same with the same joy… and with another sofa, of course.
The only difference is that we have already learned from our own experience and now we have two sofas. And no, we don’t have one of those Bertín Osborne talk show mansions. “Our lands” are two sofas. One to sit comfortably and do activities of intellectual tranquility, also called “the new one”, and another, which automatically became “the old one” so as not to call it “the dirty one”, is the first one we bought 12 years ago, to wear it out without concerns:
- Family and friends have taken a nap on it (sometimes without even taking off their shoes).
- Dozens of children have jumped on it like crazy (many times without taking off their shoes).
- Our dog has been resting on it for years when she thinks we can’t see her, because in theory it was forbidden territory for her, but the trail of abandoned hairs gives her away.
- All the paint stains, glitters, purees, have fallen on it. slime and so on (and no matter how many wipes you use, they’re still there).
- Millions of mites live on it in microscopic cities full of dust and shit that would surely scare us if we had a microscope…
In short, it is a very lived-in and dirty sofa. What if those from the CSI, The shitty ultraviolet light lamp they have explodes. But of the two, I would say without hesitation that the old and cheap one is the most comfortable and preferred by everyone.
Because in the end, what children want is to enjoy without stress. And, above all, playing without an adult who has put the classic sheet on it and is constantly warning the city guard: “be careful, don’t jump, don’t stain it…”
So whenever you want (or need, because wanting opens the door to wasting time looking at stores and getting very overwhelmed) to change your sofa, if you have some space and patience, don’t let them take the old one. Leave it in a corner where your children can savagely destroy it and you will make them and their friends very happy.
And when you are fed up with the damn thing, always in the middle and totally in ruins, your children will be old enough to help you take it down to the street.
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