Lifestyle Center: Children's Beds That Create Live-Work-Play Bedrooms.

Catherine loves sleeping in our bed because it's "so comfy!"...and it is! We couldn't wait until we found a big-girl bed in which to place her very own plush-top Heavenly Bed.

I stopped inside a shop a few months ago called: "Kids 2 College Furniture" which I had, mistakenly, assumed was a "dorm-room" furniture shop for teens and 18yr old "kids [going] 2 college". I poked my head in to check it out after my 3yr old daughter spotted miniature hand painted rocking chairs outside their front door. I was amazed to find Full and Twin beds for children that convert ( I know what you're thinking as I bought a "convertible" crib-bed that meant: gradually taking it apart piece-by-piece until there were no walls left around the mattress) from bunk bed castles for boys and girls to modular study/homework centers under loft beds with hidden Murphy beds for guests (that are as easy to pull down as opening a drawer) or four-poster canopy beds.  

I was stoked to find this place as my wife and I had been trying to convince Catherine that she would love a "Princess Bed" (4 poster with canopy) but she insisted that she needs "a bed with a ladder so that Alligators can't get [her]" and so that she can "rescue her dolls from mud-slides below with [her] Diego lasso".

Check out their website: http://www.kids2collegefurniture.com.  One of these "build-your-own" display models, in particular, has a bunk bed with a slide that converts from a castle themed play area. The ladders are at much more gradual incline than Pottery Barn beds and the extra wide "rungs"/steps are grooved for additional traction. All this and a safety railing for additional peace of mind.  The guy came after breakfast and the whole thing was put together in time to load the shelves with books before nap time.

Micromanagement: Are We Hovering Too Much?

The October 2012 issue of Psychology Today ran a feature written by Elizabeth Svoboda : “Lessons for Living: Five Surprising Principles for Living, Loving and Playing with Others. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201208/lessons-living.

The most interesting and relevant to me as a dad who wants to ensure that my wife and I are exercising a healthy amount of concern and protection was “Lesson #2: The Beauty of Benign Neglect” which discusses the opinions of relationship expert Michelle Givertz (California State University, Chico) and Hara Estroff Marano (author of A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting). They discuss the fact that… “ It’s more harmful to overparent than underparent.”

Although I don’t see us as “helicopter parents” (and sure most helicopter parents wouldn’t see themselves as such) I think it bears keeping in mind for any parent this thought: “By not letting kids stumble over little things, parents prevent them from developing coping skills… without [these coping skills] kids don’t develop a sense of mastery and self-confidence”

The nub of the article is this: “Practicing benign neglect with your children is like inoculation…stepping back, giving kids the chance to recognize that you’re there for them even when you’re not hitched to their side, that they’re capable of picking themselves up when they fall down-is the only way they’ll internalize the strength of the parental bond and a sense of their own competence.”

There is a difference between "over-management" (i.e, managing details neglected by others) vs. "micro-management" (i.e, managing every step of every process and the minutia in between".