This might at first seem like a strange question to ask! But we are in the bed business after all, so please accept this as serious market research. Somewhat less seriously, the reason we ask is that no-one here can actually remember their bed, or much of their bedroom furniture as a young child. Which led us to question whether children ever appreciate what beautiful furniture they have these days?
Clearly our childhood bedroom furniture was so uninspiring it has been quickly erased from memory. But then everything was probably less inspiring all those (twenty-one!) years ago. In fact parenting was completely different then. This point was raised just the other day when we discussed how parenting today is actually an interchangeable role with ‘events co-ordinator’. Children now are accustomed to having full-time entertainment arranged for them every weekend: Parties, day trips, presents and special meals are all squeezed in – and that’s just Saturday. Having nothing arranged at the weekend now is not something any self-respecting parent would publicly admit to, without feeling the need to justify the admission of failure.
Have children lost the skills of entertaining themselves?
In amongst all this weekend stimulation, kids just don’t seem to get a moment to themselves anymore. They don’t sit in their room having to make up games, or read a book, or go out for little adventures which involve carrying a tree branch. They’re driven around in cars with TV screens, to avoid a moment where they may become bored.
And we spend an awful lot more money on their furniture (and everything else for them in actual fact). The choice of bed type today is endless, cabin beds, truckle beds, bunk beds – no doubt you’ll have read in the recent rise ofchildrens double beds! We even supply a childs four poster bed, should none of the above be special enough.
Clearly, at Little Lucy Willow we’re not altogether unhappy at this change. But we truly hope that in twenty years’ time, your (then grown up) children will sit around and reminisce about the beautiful furniture their parents spent time and money choosing, to make everything in their life at that young age perfect.
As for the childhood bed we slept in; most of us seem to recall a divan type featureless bed. Not only was it featureless, it was very difficult to hide things under as well.