Comfort is very important to people, particularly to children. I do not mean comfort as derived from a soft cushion or a warm, dry bed, I mean comfort as in security. It is the feeling that cats and children get from sitting in a box rather than playing with the present that came in the box.
Or the comfort that some children derive from having their own special blanket, which is actually called a comforter by the majority of Americans. It is the sort of comfort that all babies and all children get from rocking
Babies almost certainly like being rocked because that was the sensation that they felt whilst mum was going about when they were still unborn. It is what mothers intuitively do when a child indicates its discomfort by crying and it is to be seen in many disturbed adults as well.
They rock back and forth in an unconscious mimicry of the feeling of comfort and security that they experienced before they were born. Children derive comfort from any number of items. Some are commonplace others are peculiar, but two of the most popular toys for children are rocking horses and rocking chairs.
In fact, the desire to sit in a rocking chair or swinging chair never leaves most individuals until their dying day. We seem to get a lot of pleasure from rocking our whole lives long.
Rocking horses and rocking chairs have different functions of course. Rocking horses are for playing on and rocking chairs are for thinking and napping in. A rocking chair is a good idea for a child because it can learn to gain solace for itself by sitting in its rocking chair and feeling contentment without the help of an adult. It helps the child gain an independence, a certain form of maturity.
The only problem with children’s rocking chairs is that children grow up and grow out of them so quickly. If you plan to have a big family this is not a problem, but otherwise you could be left with quite a collection of children’s rocking chairs in the attic.
I say this because although you can sell one before you buy a new one, people find this very difficult to do in practice. They simply can not bear to part with the old one.
You can buy an over-sized child’s rocking chair so that you can get a couple more years use out of it, but in that case it is worth obtaining one with a fixed cushion or sticking some Velcro to the seat and a cushion so that your child does not slide off it.
Rest assured, you will never buy an unwanted or unused present for any child if you buy them a rocking horse, a rocking chair or a cardboard box.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a variety subjects, but is now concerned with Silver Cross Rocking Horses. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Rocking Horses for sale.