Those Swedes are Geniuses

My husband and I were in Chicago last week and took a side-trip to Ikea up in Schaumburg, IL. I had been there once before several years ago before I had kids, but since I've had kids, Ikea was like a whole new store for me.

Their kid's section was just plain awesome. They had so many nifty ideas for organizing, their wooden toys were cute and I LOVED their little table and chairs for kids to sit at. After analyzing, measuring, re-measuring, and engineering a table my husband could build, we ended up buying 3 toy organizers, one for each of the girls' rooms and one for the play room. In addition, we bought 3 laminate tabletops my husband was going to build into a table to slide over the toy organizer (so the kids could sit and do crafts, color, etc.) A couple of Christmas gifts later and our Honda Accord was full. It was a true testament to our car that it could fit everything without prior planning (not to mention we had two suitcases, too).

But the thing that really impressed me about Ikea was the kid-friendly atmosphere, not just the kid's section of the store. Throughout the store (which is friggin' HUGE!), there were stations for kids to play while their parents shopped. So Mom and Dad can browse the kitchen cabinets while Jimmy and Sally play at a designated play area right in the department. Also, the cafeteria on the top floor had a nice kid's section for adults and kids to sit at that included a flat-screen TV playing Ratatouille. The kid's menu was generally nutritious and they even sold jars of baby food in the cafeteria. The bathrooms even included a smaller sink with a stool for kids to wash their hands.

I'm assuming that the Ikea stores are organized and planned by the Swedes, being that Ikea is a Swedish company. So why don't we make our American stores more family-friendly? I'm happy finding a baby-changing station that's not cramped between two blow-dryers, but why do we settle for that? I always thought one of our local Targets was cool because they have a Family Restroom that makes it nice for everyone to shuffle into -- Mom or Dad, pre-schooler and baby in a stroller.

Is it too much to ask that our stores offer a more family-friendly environment? Is it really that big of a deal to make ONE sink lower than the rest so a child can reach?

Ikea not only make children acceptable, they make them feel welcome. What a foreign idea!