Blanket Forts: The Architecture of Play
When school started, we dismantled the blanket fort that had taken over our living room. I now realize this was a mistake. I have the house to myself and I could totally be hanging out in there right now. Unfortunately, there’s no reasonable excuse for me, a full-grown man, to create a new one while everyone’s away.
It was cozy in there, too.
The kids pushed the couch away from the wall and hung blankets from the staircase railing to the back of the couch. I know that sounds like a standard blanket fort, but our staircase has a crawlspace with a door underneath it so this setup yields two separate rooms and quite a bit of space. I’m a little too fat to get under the stairs but it’s a perfect size for the kids. The primary rule regarding the crawlspace is that you’re not allowed to lock the door when someone’s inside. This is to prevent claustrophobia and angry phone calls from other kids’ parents.
One side effect of moving the couch to the middle of the room is that it brings you much closer to the TV. This is especially fun for video games and one more thing I should have thought about before I pulled down all the blankets. The television is not allowed inside the blanket fort because if it gets knocked over we will all be sad. Also, if the TV was in there it would be too much fun and none of us would ever leave.
I bought a pack of wooden clothespins from the dollar store specifically for blanket fort construction. They are literally and figuratively cheap and they tend to explode into their component parts when you yank the blankets down. Only an anal retentive neat freak would calmly remove each clothespin individually, so our carpet is a treasure trove of wooden clothespin halves and metal springs.
Now I’m forced to sit a reasonable distance from the television and I don’t have any good hiding places where I can eat salty snacks. The couch is still my friend but I now realize how much I miss the blanket-encased space behind it. My parenting tip for this week is to leave the blanket fort in place. Don’t worry about cleaning back there. Embrace the mess.
A Business Proposition
I may be too fat to fit in the crawlspace under the stairs but any young, orphaned wizard would be proud to call it their bedroom. I’m not on AirBnB but if you have a magical child that needs to be mistreated, leave me a message and we can work out an arrangement.
