One Mom's Ingenious Playroom
Written By Katharine Whittemore
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Sharing space with kids means giving them some of it to call their own.
A case can be made that, when it comes to modern life with small children, a dining room makes as much sense as filling a sippy cup with Jolt.
Anne Murdock and her husband, John, decided to convert their unneeded dining room into a much-needed playroom. Out went the dining room table and in came a low train table. Out went the bulky china cabinets and in went streamlined, kids-in-mind shelves and toy bins and a craft area and a dress-up corner, all the stuff that suited the space and suited the family much, much better. The change was practical, yes.
But here also was a chance to field-test their newfound parenting philosophy. "At day care, I used to see Ruby and Max [their children] hanging up their coats, washing their hands, putting the toys away, that sort of thing. It occurred to me that John and I were dopes to continue doing these things for them! So I started changing things in our house to help Max and Ruby be more self-sufficient — the design of the playroom came out of that. These changes really started to improve our lives. There was less nagging from us and a real sense of pride from the kids."
The strategies they came up with are highly doable for the rest of us. Here are six ways they made the room really, truly work.
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