Parenting

Making Your Bed

| by Lucia Davies

Dear Frankie,
 
Asking you to make your bed is not an unusual request.
 
I would say most parents expect their teenagers to fluff their own pillows and shake their crumpled duvet back into shape but when I asked you to make your own bed from scratch when you were 10 years old, well, you looked a little perplexed.
 
I get it, not every kid gets handed a toolkit and set of instructions to assemble a piece of furniture.
 
I think I would have loved that.
 
Did you know that growing up, I slept in a single bed that belonged to my Dad when he was a little boy?
 
It was handed down to me with his wardrobe too.
 
I don’t recall ever having brand new furniture in my room though.
 
I remember when I was 10 being allowed to choose my own wallpaper and curtains and feeling like an awesome interior designer.
 
Pink and grey stripes were all the rage it seemed in the 80’s, I noticed my friends had chosen similar colours for their bedrooms too.
 
I was even allowed the matching lampshade.
Your Grandpa allowed me to tinker in his workshop (also known as the shed) from time to time as long as I was sensible.
 
He would let me use his vice and saw bits of wood, I watched him turn an old TV cabinet into a hutch for my rabbits one winter.
 
Your Grandpa showed me a lot of his skills but I learned best when I was given the opportunity to have a go myself.
 
He would show me how to change a tire on my bike and then a tire on my first car.
These moments I will never forget, I treasure these memories dearly, more so now I’m grown up and Grandpa’s in heaven.
 
When we moved house, your new single bed was dismantled and reassembled again in your new bedroom.
 
It was taken apart again when we moved here and stored in the loft while we utilised your Nana’s old bed.
 
You thought Nana’s bed was the cosiest bed of all time. You would sit watching Mama Mia on a loop with her for what seemed like days.
 
You would demolish rounds of buttered toast together, dusting crumbs onto the carpet to hoover up later.
 
They were the best times, I know.
 
Nana would love to know you sleep in her bed at night, she really would.
 
I know she left you some of her precious belongings, like her jewellery and her rollers but her bed is something pretty special don’t you think?
 
And when you make your bed every morning by fluffing your pillows and shaking your crumpled Harry Potter Duvet back into shape, I know your Nana would be very proud of the beautiful teenage girl you have become.
 
Forever Yours,
 
Mum x

11 Comments

  4. I enjoy your writing’s. It shows they are written from your heart. Long nay they continue. X

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