When we go on holiday, we get FatCat — our cat which is intent on living forever — and bundle her off to cat-farm for a mere $10 a night.
It always struck me as a lot of money, but today when we popped into just about the only “dedicated baby store” in Jakarta to check out cots, I almost threw a fit to find out that something that looks pretty solid goes for around US$600 (and that’s without the mattress!).
The saleswoman pointed out that the cot should last baby till he’s at least five years old, which equates to some 1,825 nights (not including leap years), which at cat-rates translates to a mere US$18,250 — why aren’t I thinking this is a bargain?
One: I don’t think I was still sleeping in a cot at five years old — I mean what would my kindergarten mates have said if they’d known I was still sleeping in a baby’s bed — oh the shame of it…
“bed wetter, baby head, still in nappies nah nah naaahhhhhhhhh”
Two: The cots looked to be designed to become super-festy after a year or so in order to guilt parents into buying a race-car bead or a life-size pink dollhouse to sleep in — I know I couldn’t say no to a BattleStar Gallactica bed, though thankfully they don’t appear to be available in Jakarta.
Three: The stores (or rather solitary store) guilt you out by just having three beds on display — the super duper one, which is probably standard issue at the White House, a mid range one, which is verging on not adequate and a cheapie death-trap bed that would probably even kill Fat Cat if she sat in it long enough and is only purchased by Bad Parents…
So what did you do? How long was it before your child leapt onto your bed demanding a ritual cot-burning in the backyard?
Btw, FatCat loves her new cot…
You were in a bed by the time you were about two, as are most kids. For a start, where do you put baby number two if baby number one is still in possession of the gold plated cot? Go mid range, or better yet sus out any expat friends leaving town and looking to offload their gold plated cots. Seriously, as long as the cot meets safety standards, they all end up with the top rail all chewed by sharp little teeth.