To buy this sofa with young kids in the house?

[Lycidas]

DP thinks I'm ridiculous for considering buying this sofa for our new house. Apparently leather is a must and anything else will get trashed by grubby little mits (we have a one year old and another on the way).

I've had a look at leather sofas and they look/feel very bulky. Our living room isn't big so I'd like a sofa that you can see/vacuum underneath...just feels more spacious to me.

Thoughts?

Meh, depends on your kids. If you are raising hooligans then it will get destroyed. If you ensure rules and boundaries you might get the odd accidental spillage as is normal wear and tear. I managed to raise my children without having to childproof or compromise on furniture

Everyone here is only one bout of diarrhoea away from having a stained sofa you cannot account for every eventuality and assume so much about a person based on the clumsiness of their children (or mother!)

@Lycidas mostly because I think their stuff is massively overpriced and the “interest free” credit is built in to the initial cost, so you’re paying over the odds for something that half the time is buggered before you’ve paid it off.

I’d look on your local Facebook selling pages. So many people seem to change their living room furniture every year and end up selling £1000 pristine sofas for a few hundred.

Guardsman plus put throws on it when lo is up and about. You can bung them in the wash easily and put them away when lo goes to bed.

My poor sofa has had some terrible times.......being thrown up on, drinks spilt, a sharpie pen!!!
I am so very grateful that its leather and can be wiped down.
When im a grown up i would like a fabric sofa but for the next 10years i feel leather is the sensible option for my family!!

I think it's fine, as colour looks like it is dirty already ,) I have similar colour sofa and it's survived for 5 years so far- bought it when DCs were 1&4.

mymy I have the green Grönlid

We have 3 fabric sofas and 3 small children, all good so far and only one has washable covers (which have been washed a few times tbf)

One from Next, one DFS and one Sofology. We used to have leather before the children (DH choice as I hate leather and he doesn’t like fabric) got rid of it a couple of years ago as it just used to get scratched and even the professional could only cover up the marks temporarily.

Get cheap ikea with removable, washable covers to last the next five years.

It’s the only sensible option with small children. Otherwise you spend your whole time flinching and spot-cleaning.

All children have razor like nails.
Leather will be punished. Initially it will be fine - wipe puke off etc. Come the toddler years the abuse begins.
Get the thing you like, use throws, have rules for your house, there is no fail safe with small people unless you go full on crime scene protection scenario 🤣

Yeah, all it takes is one kid with some nails and then another with a small bit of cheese* to ruin a leather sofa.

*For reals

The thing with leather is that it still has cracks and crevices for food/dirt/vomit to get stuck in, and that's really the hard bit of cleaning a lot of the time. A washable fabric sofa will be easier in lots of ways.

I'd get a couple of throws to put over it - you can always take them off if you need to.

Good plan to have it off the floor a bit too. It makes it so much easier to rescue the little bits of Lego that will end up under there! We didn't consider this when we got our sofa, and there's only a tiny gap between it and the carpet - so much Lego ends up under there, and we can't get it out without moving the sofa!