The art of spending

My friend Cara and her husband Charlie have a gorgeous boy, Oska and he’s 1 year old. He is as precious as he is squishy. Most of his communication is done with noises. His face displays various expressions and it’s interesting to see it change one second from the next. He can say a few words and enforces these with a ‘yeah’… ‘yeah’… Very cool kid. Cara was saying how interesting it is that her son has got more designer clothing then her and Charles. These garments are sent to her from her family in Sweden and England. We discuss how fascinating it is that a lot of people spend tons on dressing up their offspring or their families’. Is it the same as turning their children’s bedroom into this small palace? Is it something to do about that we didn’t have ourselves when we were little? Are we compensating or just want to show the world that we ‘know our stuff’. God knows.

I am always amazed what Kiwis are willing to spend on their kids and their bedrooms. The truth is that my own bedroom is as modest as you can get. It’s got a duvet and two pillows and that is it. Not 10 scatter cushions, no fancy dress up. My excuse is that a.) I’m Dutch and we do not dress up our bedrooms, it’s a very straightforward practical arrangement and b.) my husband and I do not like having all this frilly business on our bed full stop. We rather get excited about each other than our bed linen and we rarely visit a store that has these bed frilliness things in stock. Instead we’d rather get a very good chair, a beautiful piece of art or great food. The bonus is I guess that this way we keep a bit more money in the bank, but that might be accidental as we just do not contemplate the art of bed linen.