The Chair Stands Alone

A few years ago I bought a Terence Conran home design book in which he very much advocated that children needed to find a healthy respect for parents' living space. That kids were smarter than we gave them credit for and that they would understand that not every room in the house would be turned into a jungle gym.

I don't disagree with Mr. Conran's statement - and maybe that makes me incredibly naive but I think this is something kids can learn and really, it explains the phenomenon of the "living room" vs "family room" right? I never got that until I had Archer.

But then I also thought of a friend who I'll just call Mary. Mary has literally *the coolest house ever. It was recognized in magazines and with awards for being a true statement in modern architecture. And I remember how Mary used to often entertain in that house - to the envy of all who went to her parties. We were all so jealous of Mary. She looked like she had the perfect life, in the perfect house.

And then Mary had kids and we never saw the inside of her house again.

Mary since explained to me that they no longer entertained because the house now looks nothing like its former self and that the kids and all of their stuff have taken over.

I'm not sure I totally believe Mary but I vowed then and there not to let this happen to us.

And so, when it came to buying Archer his first "bouncy chair" we bought the beautiful, modern Oeuf bouncer featured above which, btw, completely works in our main living space with our modern neutral tones and clean lines.

For a while, it seemed like Archer was pretty happy in his Oeuf chair. But perhaps he did not really know what happiness was.

A trip to Grandma's house sure changed that! Perhaps I'm reading too much into my little guy but I think I observed a true expression of disappointment - nay, even loss - when we came home from Winnipeg and he realized that his Fisher Price bouncy chair, which was decked out with a *lot of colours, plastic characters on a mobile that sung Ba Ba Black Sheep (or ABC, or Twinkle Twinkle - was I the only one, btw, who only recently realized that those are all the same song? I feel totally ripped off), a vibrating option - wasn't there. Only the Oeuf. The lowly, modern, beautifully designed Oeuf.

It was a wonder I even waited until today to go and get him the identical Fisher Price chair he had at Grandma's house. Some might say I even deprived the little one - but all was forgiven when he got to sit in his chair again and he was reunited with his good buddies "Mo" and "Schmo" (the names we gave to the mobile critters in Wpg - I have officially lost all credibility, haven't I?). You can see just how much he has bonded with them in the picture here - he literally studies their faces. It's incredible.

So does this mean we have to ignore Mr. Conran's advice and just give up on having an adult space that respects design? I don't think so - again, maybe I'm naive - but at least at this stage in Archer's life he doesn't have *that much by way of toys, etc... that will change but maybe even then we can continue to follow a few of these rules:

1. After your little guy/gal goes to sleep take 10 minutes and clear your room of all things baby. If you have another room that you can put it in, do that. Even if you just hide the stuff out of your sight line do that. This isn't being cold to your baby or denying that he's the most important part of your life - but part of making him happy, is making yourself and your spouse happy and you have to spend some adult time, in an adult space with your partner to do that.

2. Have a room that is almost entirely off-limits to baby stuff. The most obvious place for that is your bedroom. If I have to explain why this is important...

3. Continue to seek out baby items that combine good design and make your little guy happy. If Oeuf had simply added a mobile to their chair, I think Archer would have been pretty darned happy and the chair would still have fit in our room. There are companies out there that do this well. Dwell comes to mind with all of their fun linens, etc - I *wish we had the affordable line they make for Target here in Canada...http://www.target.com/DwellStudio%C2%99-Baby/b?ie=UTF8&node=393200011