MOOKS- does your kid have a desk in their room?

[Alps79]

dd is asking for a desk. She asked Santa lol. She doesn't have a ton of excess space in her room but I figure the desk could take the space of her nightstand next to her bed. She loves to read and always has a stack of books out. 

However, I'm fairly certain dd will never do homework at her desk. She likes to get that done at our kitchen island. I don't really envision her using the desk a ton.... basically I'm 1000% confident she will fill the drawers with trash... and crap.... and trash. She's not the tidiest person.  That said, she could probably use a few drawers for personal items. She has dressers for her clothing. 

So does your kid have a desk in their room? Are you glad or is it just one more thing that needs to be cleaned out? I'm not opposed to it.... I'm just trying to be thoughtful about all the stuff we buy and bring into our house. 

[ECB]

No, DS doesn't. We have an office upstairs that when the time comes where he wants to do homework away from us, we'll have him use our office.

[mrsbro]

Mine do (9, 8) - they do not do homework on it. They use it to draw and play when they need time away from each other. It's really not that messy and they each have a drawer full of their crap (erm "treasurers). So far no issues.

[mrssandro]

Yes. She is 9 and asked for a desk last year from Santa. She doesn't really use it for homework but I have seen her use for experiments and crafts.

[abs]

DD has one in her play room. She uses it to store her journals and rock collection but otherwise nope it doesn't get used. She does homework and art projects downstairs.

[Deleted]

My oldest does, but the rest don't. We have desks in the house though. One in the living room and another one in the finished basement. I'm the only one that uses either LOL the kids usually prefer to sit at the kitchen or dining room tables to do homework. I have no problem with them having desks in their rooms, but none of them really have the space for it.

[CloudBee]

As long as we are living in our current home DS will not have a desk in his room. There's just not space. If / when we move and he has a larger room in the next house, I'm pretty sure we'll throw a desk into his room. I see him doing homework at the kitchen table for a few more years, though.

[esdreturns]

All of mine do (12, 11, 8). The youngest actually uses it the most, although he is usually drawing or making crafts. I like that they have them as it gives them a space to do their homework or other things away from everyone else.

[jezebel]

I got L a desk last year. It’s in our playroom, though. She does her homework, uses her computer, draws, writes... it gets a lot of use.

[oregonpachey]

No. They have built in desks in our kitchen that they play games on (they don't have homework).

[maudefindlay]

My oldest does (DS1 age 9) and he does his homework on it, artwork, writing. .and makes Youtube videos sitting at it. He keeps it fairly tidy and as I'm a minimalist, I make him declutter if it gets to be too much.

You could try a wall mount desk that folds up when not in use to save space. Probably easy to make one if you check out Pinterest.

[katiecj6]

No. He does all his work on his top bunk (he sleeps on the bottom bunk)

[susiebw]

DD (7yo) has a desk. We had a woodworking friend of ours build it for her when we were setting up her nursery. I didn't have or want a changing table, but needed a place to change a baby, so friend helped me design this desk. It has shelves instead of drawers, and there are wicker baskets in 3 of the 4 shelves, with the 4th serving as an extra bookshelf. The chair space in the middle was the perfect size for her small laundry basket before she needed it as a desk. Once she was potty trained, we got her a chair and did the wall in front of the desk into a craft space with a wall-mounted paper storage system, magnet board and Ikea Bygel rail/bucket system for markers, etc. She sometimes does homework there, but mostly she and DS (4yo) use it for arts and crafts.

[ohgillian]

My 8 year old does not, but I expect he will need and get one down the road for homework. For now he does homework at a main-floor desk.

[imojoebunny]

We have a small room at the top of the stairs, kind of a loft area, open to the stair well. The kids have built in desk there. DS, 9, uses his, but DD, 12, tends to come to the kitchen.

[circa1978]

My almost 8YO does not. His school doesn't give homework, though, and he prefers to do art stuff on the kitchen table anyway.

[rooster222]

Not anymore, both kids prefer to do homework downstairs.

[greenmonkey1]

Two of my three boys have desks. DS1 (6) received one for his birthday. He loves doing homework, crafting, building, etc. at his desk. It has a magnet board on the hutch too, which he thinks is the nuts. DS2 (4) is getting one for Christmas. He'll use it to draw, color, build, etc.

Both are from Ikea. DS1's desk has drawers and he is a bit of a collector so there is some effort required to keep it not full of his "art projects" and treasures. My Dad seems to have made it his personal mission to help DS1 be more organized so DS1 and grandpa clean/organize the desk when grandpa is over. No argument from me.

[cville]

Mine uses hers to draw angry graphic short stories about how I'm too strict when she's mad at me.

And sometimes for homework.

[ssmjlm]

What about getting a bookcase/leaning desk or a small desk from Ikea that just has a couple drawers? This way the chance of clutter is minimized.

[tigress]

My kids do not. We have built in desks in our family room the oldest girls use. They have asked for a desk in their room but I imagine it would just be a junk trap and easier to forget homework up there on the off chance that is where they do the homework.

[goldengirlz]

DD has one of those little kid-sized tables but rarely uses it; she does most of her homework in aftercare at school and when we go over it at night, we sit together at the dining room table. She reads in bed or on the couch.

I had a desk growing up and never used it either. I always did homework in the basement sprawled out on my stomach, ha. We’ll reevaluate once DD gets older.

[devonpow]

Ds1 (11) does. He does not use it. Most of his homework is on the computer, and we keep his laptop and desktop downstairs in our office. Also my kids have their rooms on the 3rd floor/away from everything else in the house. They tend not to be in their rooms at all except to sleep. I’m sure this will change as we enter the teen years lol

[lovelyshoes]

Not yet, no room, but I hope to get one when we move. I loved my desk growing up and all the way through graduate school and I think it’s important to have that dedicated space for homework and studying . He’s spending more and more time in his room and I want it set up for work and comfort.

[cmeon]

Both of mine have loft beds with desks underneath. They don't use them for homework much, but, they do use them.

ETA: They also each have a desk in the family room, where they use computers and work on projects.

[was5]

DD (11) got one 2 years ago. She used it for homework for about 6 months. Now it's covered in crap. She is also not the tidiest person, to put it mildly. I was hoping a desk would help her stay organized. It did not.

[Deleted]

No. We just built desks for both kids on the main floor. They use them to color and do art for now. Eventually we will also keep their tablets/computers there. I wanted the computers in a common area so we can monitor them, and I wanted only one desk area.

[froggy76]

My DD (7) has a small one from Ikea in her room. We thought it would be great for her going into first grade, especially since she loves writing and drawing. Shortly after we got it, stuff got piled on the desk and the chair and that's how it's been for the last 6 months... maybe when she gets older she'll use it, but right now she doesn't want to hang out alone in her room anyway.

[anonymous]

DD, turns 9 today, is getting a desk and fuzzy chair from santa.  WE will put the desk in our playroom or family room, both of which are on the main level.  I don't want it in her room b/c when she gets access to a device, we will have a rule that devices must be used on main level and i think putting the desk in her room now will make that harder to enforce down the line.  i'm sure it will be used to store crap but i prefer crap to be in the desk than out on playroom shelves like it is now

[macmars45]

My H has a wall mounted desk in our loft area (that he uses as an office when he works from home). It's a small area and having it wall mounted really opens up the space for other activities. We also have a bookshelf and tiny couch up there so I can curl up and read. When DS gets older I think H and he will play video games or build lego creations up there.

ETA: DS has a very small bedroom so we'd have to downsize his dresser or otherwise get creative to make a desk fit.

In the end H and I hope we're in a SFH with a little more flexibility by the time he'll be in need or want of a desk.