How to Ikea

I have been to Ikea many times. With my daughter. Especially after another mom told me you can drop your child off at the play place for 1 hour. 1 HOUR! For free! It doesn't cost you anything and you can shop in peace for 1 hour. Of course it's just a marketing ploy as it allows bored, stay-at-home moms to buy stuff they really don't need within 1 hour. It takes 1 hour to go through the whole place so moms probably end up chucking really useless things into their shopping cart as they have no time to reconsider. At home you realise you don't want to go back to Ikea with your child so you end up not returning the aforementioned useless things.

Today I went with my daughter and her father, L. L has rarely been to Ikea (too many things and too many people) and when we were walking towards the entrance he was unsure of which shopping cart to take as there were a number of different ones on offer. Tip: you always take the one which fits your child. Inside I was already walking towards the elevator when L asked me, a bit bewildered, where the elevator was. When arriving at the play place I told L to take off our daughter's jacket and shoes while giving him a box to put the things in. I then went to fill out the required questionnaire. Our daughter was already washing her hands (she knows the drill) and had placed her hand on the counter so that the child minder could put a stamp on her hand. I got a stamp with the corresponding number, said bye to our daughter and was ready to do some shopping. I was heading towards the elevator when L asked puzzled "You don't have to stay with her?". Today was a busy day (Saturday) so instead of 1 hour our child was allowed to enjoy the play place for 45 minutes. L was so bewildered by the whole process that when leaving to do some shopping he said he saw our daughter in the ball sea. It was not our daughter. The girl he referred to was wearing completely different clothes and had way more hair.

We came to buy a storage box for our daughter's toys and we managed to find a good (=cheap) one within 5 minutes. So, we made a big mistake by going through the whole place and checking the goods on offer. I was tempted a few times but luckily I only managed to add a measuring jug (99 cents) to the storage box.

We decided we were ready (= 45 minutes had passed) and went to pick up our daughter. Whenever I go there with another mom we end up eating at Ikea as the food is so cheap and the children's' menu only costs 2 Euros and includes ice cream. At the restaurant the queues were long and we decided to just get some hot dogs and ice cream from the stand behind the check out. Big mistake. Isabella was unpleasantly surprised when we told her we wouldn't eat at the restaurant but was quickly consoled when we told her she would get ice cream. Little people can be so easily pleased. She got her ice cream, a hot dog and a cookie I took from a tasting platter. Cookie was good. Hot dog was too. We had the storage box, Isabella had her ice cream and we were ready to go home. Now L knows how to Ikea.

Nice but for people without children.