If you’ve ever cautioned any of your kids to sit correctly on their bottoms instead of kneeling on the chair, your house may not be so kid-friendly. If you haven’t invested in specialized furniture for your kids, you may wonder: why is child-sized furniture even important?
Child-sized tables and chairs are much safer for kids than regular adult-sized ones. Also, they are more comfortable, and they promote better posture and sitting habits in kids. Just as you wouldn’t want to work on child-sized furniture, getting your kids the rightly sized furniture pieces is a necessity.
Here, you’ll learn the details of the importance of getting child-sized furniture for your kids. Also, you’ll know what child-sized furniture means and when you should get unique kid-friendly tables and chairs for your kids.
What Is Child-Sized Furniture?
Child-sized furniture refers to any piece of furniture specifically created for the small size of growing kids. These pieces of furniture typically have the same structural build as the regular adult-sized ones, but they have been downsized to allow children to access materials more efficiently without any adult’s help.
Child-sized furniture can also refer to pieces of furniture that enhance the relationship between a parent and a child. In any case, child-sized furniture is always crafted according to the ergonomic needs of the child first.
Despite the apparent need for this class of furniture, they’re still a sporadic sight in most homes and schools today.
Sometimes, child-sized furniture is built to be easily extendable. This design choice is logical, as kids grow incredibly quickly. Having to buy different furniture sets every year because your kid has grown taller isn’t very economical after all.
Having children grow with pieces of furniture designed specifically for them is essential in ways other than one. In the following few paragraphs, I’ll detail some of the advantages of getting child-sized furniture for your kids instead of regular-sized ones.
Why Is Child-Sized Furniture Important?
If you’ve been considering stocking rooms around your home with child-sized furniture, stop contemplating. Here are some reasons why child-sized furniture is a no-brainer investment that will help your kids’ development.
1. Safety
The last thing you want to see is your kid getting hurt due to inconvenient furniture. But this scenario happens more often than you think. Falls from the furniture is reportedly the leading cause of injury among toddlers, according to Reuters.
Kneeling on a chair to write on a table is one of the easiest and most preventable ways a child could get seriously injured on a piece of furniture.
This shows that regular adult-sized furniture isn’t just unsafe for kids; it may be hazardous. With child-sized furniture, the risks of a kid falling and sustaining an injury are almost zero, making it the safest option by a country’s mile.
2. Good Posture
No one really seems to care that kids have to kneel on the chair when they write or that they sit with their legs dangling in mid-air when they eat. These are very unhealthy and uncomfortable postures, especially for growing kids.
Nothing beats sitting comfortably in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your back in a resting position. Not only does it simplify legible writing, but it also enables the kids to eat more comfortably while teaching them the best sitting postures.
They can also move the chairs and tables quickly to ensure they’re not too close to the table or too far away. While these sound like minor changes, it makes a huge difference as you don’t want your kids to strain their backs trying to reach for food.
3. Kids’ Independence
If you’ve lived with kids for long enough, you should know how much kids like to say: “I’ll do it myself.” They always want to write their homework themselves, dress themselves up, and reach for their books and toys on their own.
You don’t want your kid climbing chairs to reach high places, and your kid doesn’t want to ask for your help to do anything.
The solution to this paradox is simple; get them furniture that will enable them to reach their stuff without your help. That way, they don’t need to climb chairs to reach their books, and they will need your help a lot less frequently; win-win.
To ensure that your home is designed to make your kids independent, you need something more than just child-friendly furniture. That said, stocking the house with some miniature chairs and tables is always a good starting point.
4. Privacy and Quiet
Kids love child-friendly furniture because it creates a separate individual space without much adult interference.
This enhances creativity and encourages them to try stuff that they may be unwilling to try with a grown-up around. The kids can practice drawing doodles, playing with dolls and toys or even reading.
This way, they can be engaged with something creative while you, the caregiver, also get some quiet time to attend to other activities on your calendar.
When Should I Get My Child Table?
Kids need child-sized furniture as soon as they learn how to sit on chairs and tables. Your kid shouldn’t get used to sitting on oversized furniture, as it could hurt their overall health and posture, not to measure the risks of falls that may result in an injury.
Typically, you should let your kids sit on a high chair before transitioning them to a regular child-sized chair.
The average age range for the transition between a high chair to a regular chair and table is around 3 to 4 years old, but it depends on the baby. While some are ready for a child-sized chair and table from as early as 18 months, others may need to be as old as four years old.
You should see visible signs when your child is ready to transition from a high chair to a table. Toddlers are usually wiggly during their first few months with the high chair. When they get very comfortable and stable on the high chair, they may just be ready for a transition to the table.
