The Story of the New Beds

I have two teenage daughters, both of whom are too young to drive. At this age, dads exist for two main reasons: to buy them stuff and to drive them places. However, I have recently discovered that one of my daughters is much better at getting me to buy her things than the other. To avoid embarassment (to them and to me), I will refer to them as Daughter 1 and Daughter 2.

Daughter 1 tends to demand things. Dad, take me to the movies! Dad buy me a video game! Usually her requests involve driving her someplace with at least one girlfriend in tow. Daughter 2 is more subtle. She will research what she wants on the internet and either call me over to the laptop in a sweet voice or send me a link. All I have to do for her is fill in my credit card number and her wants magically appear.

The new beds are a case in point. Back when my girls were younger, they always wanted to sleep in our room. To get around this, we bought them bunk beds so that they could sleep in the same room and leave us alone. As they grew older, this arrangement came to an end and the bunk beds were taken apart and placed in separate rooms.

However, the bunk beds were not conducive to The Never-Ending Sleepover. On any given weekend, the girls have one or more friends sleeping over. If both girls had friends over, they would fight over who got to use the guest room, which has a queen-sized bed and a futon. Both girls asked for new, larger beds that would allow friends to sleep over in their bedrooms. I had to admit that they probably had outgrown the old beds.

Daughter 1 started demanding a new bed around Christmas. I told her that beds cost money and that I didn't want to make the investment Also, you couldn't walk into her room for all of the clothes, magazines and stray pieces of paper on the floor. It didn't seem like there would be any way to get a larger bed into the disaster area. However, by the end of school, she had enlisted one of her friends for the cleaning job and several trash bags later, the room was in much better shape. However, there was still the problem of the clothes. Her clothes far exceeded her meager dresser space, so that meant a trip to the Room Store to get her a new dresser. It also meant a trip across town to pick it up. At this point, I was shopped out.

Enter Daughter 2. She went onto the internet and found the bed of her dreams. Of course it was outrageously expensive. When I said no, she did some more research and found another one for half the price. She smiled so sweetly that I gave in and placed the order. Afterward,I realized that I had spent more than I had planned. However, I figured out that it was for a good cause.

At this point, I was now committed to buying a bed for Daughter 1. I had been putting her off for six months and had now bought a bed for her sister on the first request. We trooped back to the Room Store with a friend to help her make the decision, let her roam all over the store and try every bed in the place, then negotiated downward as I vetoed the more expensive options. Finally, a choice was made and the order was placed.

Within a week of each other, the two beds arrived. Since Daughter 1's bed was ordered from a store, it was delivered and set up for us with no problem. Daughter 2's bed showed up on a pallet with a bunch of boxes. To their credit, my wife and Daughter 2 hauled the boxes upstairs and spent about a week assembling the bed without any help from me. Now both daughters have new beds and The Never-Ending Sleepover can continue with a minimum of warfare between the two sisters.



However, I have come to a realization. A teenager with a lapop is a lot more dangerous than a teenager who has to be taken to stores. I can always put off a trip to the store. However, the internet is always out there, full and shiny new things which can be delivered to your door.