The Most Perfect Families Are Plastic!

By Nadine On October 25, 2012 · Leave a Comment

‘Perfect’ doesn’t exist when it comes to family life. Well it does, but only in small doses. For example the day we went to a cousin’s christening recently. We arrived in a posh new car (I was test driving a Toyota Prius for a blog post that day!), we all looked groomed and well turned out and my son and daughter behaved themselves throughout the service. We’d have looked like the perfect family. But that was just for a few hours.

But perfect to me is the thing that no-one ‘outside’ sees. The Saturday nights when we all get into our PJs early and cuddle up in bed (all four of us!) to watch The X Factor. The moments when I collect my children from school and I watch the oldest take the hand of the youngest and walk ahead, chatting away about the important things they did that day or how each night I go into their rooms and kiss them when they are asleep, and find my 5 year old son sleeping on the floor under his bed because he was ‘making a den’ which was his excuse when I asked him! It’s not ‘perfect’ to sleep on the floor, but bless him, to me he and his sister are perfect.

Kids toys always portray perfection, so our children grow up learning that everyone lived ‘happily ever after’, that every doll house has a white picket fence and a stunning orangery and that there are never piles of laundry in the wendy house, or little figurines of kids yelling. Look at these Sylvanian Families from Argos. Their home is perfect, they have a treehouse (my kids would love one of those!), canal boat and a caravan, so obviously plenty of leisure time to enjoy holidays, and they even have a log cabin! Plus every perfect household needs a pet and all kids love furby. The cute, gremlin like creature is as good as any family dog!

So would I swop Sylvanian Family perfection for the snotty noses, mild backchat, bath splashing and never ending washloads? Given the choice for toy world perfection or imperfect ‘real life’, I’ll take the reality any day. Especially when it comes with hugs from a little person!