For almost as long as I can remember, I have been looking at toy teepees in those catalogs which flood the mailbox around Christmas. For almost as long as I can remember, I have narrowly avoided buying one, for all manner of practical and monetary (OK, mostly monetary) reasons.

At various times I could have bought one like this ($99):

But there is no room for it indoors. Outdoors it would get muddy, it would get torn, and how much fun can you have in a teepee anyway?

At other various times I could have bought one like this ($366):

Except (and no offense to anyone who has bought one, because they are beautiful and are supposed to last from childhood into the teens, although what a teenager would find to do with one of these beats me, unless they were to sit in it to smoke marijuana. Oh, I misread that, it actually said tweens, but still… ) um…

… except it would get muddy, it would get torn and OMG $366, didn’t my Wii cost around that? You know, the one involving chips and wires and years of experimental research by some very educated boffins? I am looking forward to the day when I can just drop $366 on a couple of poles and some cloth which doesn’t even fit a full grown adult (no, not even me, I am actually slightly over 5ft. Slightly.) and think nothing of it. Oh and BTW here is another tent which costs around $366, give or take $3. It doesn’t have a hole in the roof and will fit a family of three.

And also - how much fun can you have in a teepee anyway?

Given all the above, I have not given in to the Lure of the Funny Shaped Tent. But those catalogs keep dropping through the mailbox and falling open at the Fun Native American Toys page. It must be the hippy in me, but a teepee, that’s so cool! My kids would love one! Oh the fun they would have! Oh the stories they would weave! Oh the joys they would sing!

But then this Christmas I came home from shopping to find that The Daddy, without even being asked, had solved the problem for me. Because theoretically I might just have given in this Christmas and bought a teepee. And if that had been the case The Daddy would have just saved me between $99 and $366. He’s a keeper, that The Daddy…

And his creation? Classy. Around here, this is how we roll.

Oh, and the kids loved it … for the first 10 minutes. Because actually it turns out, there isn’t a whole lot of fun to be had in a teepee. Unless you are really into sitting.