Should I buy bunkbeds or a single bed when furnishing my child’s room? Decorating a child’s room may not be one of the biggest decisions you make in their upbringing, but it may be one that can have longer-reaching effects than you think.
Raise your hand if you had the same bed throughout most of your childhood. Yup, me too. It wasn’t until I had actually graduated from high school that I graduated from my childhood bed. There are very few things that you will own for the duration of your child’s life, but a bed runs a very high likelihood of sticking it out. That leaves you with the ever important question: what type of bed? Should you get your child a double, so there is enough room on it for you to comfortably accidentally-fall-asleep in it? Not such a bad idea, except you run the risk of having a child that become accustomed to sleeping in the ‘starfish’ position, wrecking their siblings/friends/future bed-mates heads because they are the greediest of all sleepers. (Here’s looking at you, sis.) Do you get them the logical step up from a toddler bed, the single bed? Sure, why not? Except, what happens if there are friends over? Or your kid to room ratio exceeds 1:1?
That’s where the bunk beds come in. Surface area may be at a bit of a premium in the children’s quarters, so building up instead of out makes the most sense. If you make the investment in a good set of bunk-beds, you can have them in your house longer than your children. (With any luck, at least.) They can be used to house multiple off-spring in a single room, give your kids’ friends a place to sleep during a sleepover, and can eventually be used to turn a vacation place into a bunkhouse of sorts. The key to having the beds outlast the kids though is a sound investment. And really, sound is the place to start. Everybody has heard a bad set of bunk beds. All it takes is one deep breath, and it sounds like you have an entire percussion set playing their favourite tune in your ear. Or better yet, the ear of the child whom you had just laid down to sleep after a tearful negotiation about everything from brushing their teeth to the pyjamas they are wearing. So yes, the sound check is mandatory. But beyond the audible benefits of good craftsmanship, you have the structural integrity to be concerned about. Would you choose – as a full-grown adult – to climb up to the top bunk? Of course not! But, you throw a child into that equation, and all of a sudden the statistical analysis comes out differently. You, teddy, and your child may lay there more nights than you care to think about to prevent the night-time attacks of the boogey-man. You’re already going to be worried about all of the things that live under the bed, so why add the weight-bearing ability of the bunk bed to the list? There is really no need to be picturing the scene from Step Brothers while trying to disentangle yourself and sneak down without waking the beast… I mean child.
You want something that is going to last long, stay silent, and all without bankrupting you. (That’s what you had kids for, right?) So invest, in beds that may be passed throughout your family, or beds that may stick around long enough to become a part of the family. A good set of bunk beds can help with space, sleep, and storytime problems. Which is more than you can usually ask of a person, let alone a piece of furniture.