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Katy Bowman on Furniture and Strollers!

3K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  JessieWright 
#1 ·
I LOVE Katy Bowman AND this article!

I've been wanting to get rid of our mission set sofa/chair for some time now and this might just be the fire under my butt that I needed!
This article would also complement the diastasis recti/pelvic organ prolapse thread we have going (I'll put it there, too.)

I never really thought about strollers and how detrimental they can be to children! Duh! My kids haven't really utilized ours very much - I tend to bring it for really long trips like our 12 mile hikes or 6 hour trips to Longwood but mostly just for carrying all of our stuff like stainless Kanteens, food, camera, extra clothing, etc. Plus, such a bnefit to parents to carry their kids rather than push them in the stroller.

I'm totally putting monkey bars somewhere in our house! My kids (and all kids, I suppose) are naturally active and I find myself constantly saying things like, "Don't bounce on the couch!" - "Don't jump off the couch!" etc, etc. It's not healthy for me, or DH, to sit on the couch or chair, or whatever, so why don't I just get rid of them??

The coffee-table-as-desk with floor pillow is totally doable, but adapting to eating meals that way seems so much more....out there. We don't spend that much time at the table eating meals, so maybe I won't worry about it. I would like to have a low coffee table for drawing/games/Legos, etc with floor pillows so that they gravitate towards that rather then the kitchen or dining table. And, I've been wondering for a long time now why we need both a kitchen table AND a dining room table... It's just that our kitchen nook would look weird without a table and a dining room table wouldn't fit in the kitchen. To be honest, we don't all comfortably fit at our kitchen table anyway.
 
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#2 ·
Eh, that would be way too extreme for our family. Monkey bars would be fun, but I don't see a need to eliminate furniture. Or strollers. The kids barely sit on furniture as it is. And they are constantly moving and squirming when they do.

I think if an adult wants to, they can find a healthier balance of sitting and standing time, without getting rid of the couch. It's just a matter of discipline.
 
#6 ·
Eh, that would be way too extreme for our family. Monkey bars would be fun, but I don't see a need to eliminate furniture. Or strollers. The kids barely sit on furniture as it is. And they are constantly moving and squirming when they do.

I think if an adult wants to, they can find a healthier balance of sitting and standing time, without getting rid of the couch. It's just a matter of discipline.
Totally ageed with you @Emanresu. It's just a matter of dicpline. You can set kids monkey bar outside your home so that you can purchase a comfortable table for your family or you can place your couch in another room until your kids became adult :wink:
 
#3 ·
Our couch is SOOOO uncomfortable anyway and the price tag of a flame-retardant-free sofa is outrageous so this is just a push in the direction I was probably already headed.

We have a finished basement (without furniture) that I'll probably leave as open space for the kids to do gymnastic type stuff and possibly some sort of monkey-bar type set-up for climbing.

I'll probably end up keeping a dining table but I think I could deal with no sofa. My current plan is to keep a handful of comfy chairs in the basement for when guests come, that I could haul upstairs - like rocking chairs and mission-style chairs - but nothing upholstered.

Sounds kind of fun and I'm always up for an adventure! I love to change stuff up at home. :D And if I get rid of our very uncomfy couch and we don't like not having one, I could always find something to replace it.
 
#4 ·
I love sitting on floor cushions anyway, way easier on my back. However, for visiting grandparents etc., I would feel the need to have something higher up that an older and less stable person would be comfortable getting into and out of. BUT, I love Katy Bowman's work and think she makes a lot of valid points about the need for environments in the home that foster natural movement. My solution for now is just to get outside as much as I possibly can, even when it's raining cats and dogs. :)
 
#5 ·
When I grew up, at my grandparents' house, we ate around a large coffee table. We didn't sit on the floor, though. The grownups sat on two low, cushioned benches, and the kids sat on ottomans. You still have to lean forward, but it's a little less extreme than floor cushions. My DH has bad knees and it hurts him to get up from the floor...


But this is very interesting! I'll have to think about it a bit more...
 
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