Yes, I do love my Pottery Barn

Yesterday, we decided to visit dad at work in Seattle. He’s just a few minutes up the road from my mecca, University Village. So we had some time to kill (read: I planned)before lunch, and couldn’t wait to see what the Land of Nod and PBkids had to offer. I am a yuppie at heart. I would totally have my house done in Nantucket Blue if I could afford the outrageousness. But you do get what you pay for, and that furniture can be handed down for generations. I’m all for paying a little more, if it means I’m not buying a new bed for the next 100 years, not like our boys’ bunk bed, bought about 5 years ago, and might as well been built with toothpicks and duct tape.

But my practical voice is always yelling “We can find it at Target”. But it won’t be the same. It’s not. So, I get what I can afford and buy the wooden and felt food, send some items as gifts, and get the few baskets I know I won’t find anywhere else and are totally worth the price.

But it pained me not to buy up this Star Wars bedroom stuff. My oldest LOVES Star Wars. And when I say love, I don’t mean like how you love your best-fitting jeans. He wants to grow up and help George Lucas make Episodes 7, 8, and 9. He is going to become a filmmaker, just so that he can make more of these movies.

But as much as I would love to nurture his creativity and send his obsession into the stratosphere with this room decor, I simply cannot bring myself to spend $59 on a set of twin sheets, or $69 on a duvet cover and since we have bunk beds, I would need two sets. The decorative pillow is $24 and isn’t even available until mid-September. The Luke Skywalker poster framed in wood and plexiglass is $199. Not to mention the lightsaber (not to be confused with the plastic one we have, that the blade coll apes on itself like those little Russian nesting dolls, retail $7.99) is made of wood and is going for $69. Luckily, my kids know that whining is not an option, but for a nanosecond, I imagined whining to my husband about this. He would simply look at me like I was on the pipe, and my nanosecond is over.

Yes, I know that Tar-jay has their own version, but I’m sorry, it is NOT the same. The PBkids’ one are soft and beautiful, 95% cotton and 5% organic cotton, and you know they’ll last forever. The Tar-jay ones are ghetto, 70% polyester, and feel like you are putting the kids to bed on one-ply toilet paper. I am a bedding-snob, if you are going to spend a third of your day in something, it should feel somewhat decent. You can find nice quality sheets at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Marshall’s, etc. for the same price at other stores, so there are no excuses. I broke and purchased their Spongebob sheets, and the first time I washed them, the elastic snapped. But the boys love those sheets, and they have tons of blankets on their beds, so no bed-burns for them.

I suppose if they really wanted the Tar-jay sheets, I would probably get them because they are about $20, and they would be just as happy. I guess that’s what parenthood is all about, making your kids happy. And compromise. Sigh.