Family “Fun” Day… At Ikea?

We recently had a shift here. For years now, The Captain has worked Saturdays. The kids have long been used to him not being home, so doing things “as a family” were typically squeezed into a few hours on Sunday- if at all.

He’s no longer working on Saturdays, so we’re trying to figure out what that looks like as a family. What do… “normal” families do on your typical rainy Saturday afternoon?

They go to Ikea, apparently- because everyone was there. EVERYONE.

We had decided to pick up some new plates & cups now that the kids are older (We’re all high-society now; no more drinking out of coffee mugs at dinner!).

As Saturday rolled around, it turned out that our older three teens all had plans with friends.

Since we had to run the Ikea errand anyway, The Captain suggested that we go together, and take all three little kids with us.

What the WHAT??

I wasn’t feeling it, at first. Because after a full week corralling kids out & about in public, the last thing I felt like doing was, well, corralling kids out & about in public, you know?

I thought they’d be bored out of their minds while we talked plates, so it seemed like a bad idea. But trying to get into the spirit of doing things as a family, I figured we’d go for it.

I’m happy to report that I was wrong- we ended up having a blast, at a home goods store. 

It had been quite awhile since I’d been to Ikea. Oh, we used to shop there all the time when we first got married, because we had:

1. Time.
2. Money.
3. No one to break the things we spent time to pick & money to buy.

 

If you’ve been to Ikea (and based on the amount of people that were there with us on Saturday, I’m figuring at least 80% of you were there…), then you know that you can’t just pop in, head directly to the item you’re planning to buy, & hop on out again.

Shopping at Ikea is a PROCESS, people. 

Oh, you’ll get to the plates- eventually. But you’ll get their via Ikea’s very windy path, meandering through every single gorgeously appointed model room first.

Just in case you consider walking OFF the beaten path, well, the arrows will make it clear that the plates are this way. No, THIS way.

The kids started grumbling when we first arrived, & I couldn’t blame them. Shopping for plates is definitely not on a kid’s “Can’t Wait!” list, & falls into that category of Boring Things Adulting Requires. 

I had misgivings about how this was going to go… until we hit the first model room.

THEY FRIGGING LOVED IT!!

Every room’s nooks & crannies were a source of excitement; the kids couldn’t wait to examine the lamps, the colors, & the cool shapes.

They hustled from room to room like rides in an amusement park, so excited to see the next one…

…and the next one…

 

…and the next one…

Now granted, I loved the layouts. I’ve always appreciated Ikea’s clean, streamlined style, so I enjoyed browsing their displays.

But I totally underestimated that kids (not just ours- other kids were jumping around, too) would appreciate it as well, because it was different. Neat. Fun.

 

Not that every second of our shopping trip was filled with ecstasy, of course. The majority of the experience was entertaining, but they found our lengthy plate selection process less than thrilling…

We picked up the items that we came for, & the crew perked back up again with frozen yogurt cones… at $1 apiece! My kind of budget, Ikea!

 

What I took away from this otherwise mundane errand was the reminder that sometimes it’s the simplest things that bring kids joy.

What I assumed would be a dull, routine sort of trip turned out to be a surprisingly fun family-time event. 

If you’re like me, you fall into the trap of checking things off your “To Do” list, & rushing to just get.them.done. But sometimes slowing it down makes it so much more enjoyable.

Kids have a way of turning the ordinary into an adventure- if you’re willing to invest in sharing the moment with them.

We’re still getting used to having more “time” as a family than we’ve been used to. But a visit to Ikea was a sweet way for me to remember that any kind of outing with your family is as fun as you make it.

And I appreciate that we had fun doing an normal, everyday thing…as a family.

 

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