Teen Son Wouldn’t Cuddle Anymore so Mom Knit a Cuddle Friendly Son

It can be a real bummer when your kids start growing up and getting older. Sure, there are some positive developments, like being able to ditch the diapers and stop paying for daycare, but as children progress from babies to toddlers, and then from preschoolers to high schoolers, parents tend to start missing things.
For one mom, when her sons became teenagers, she realized how much she missed the cuddles they used to share. As they became more independent and more mature, the need to snuggle up next to Mommy naturally faded away. But her desire for it didn’t.
So she found a creative, and slightly creepy, solution. She made herself a new son. Not by doing anything so crazy as getting pregnant again, no. She actually made a son out of thread. She knitted a new cuddle buddy for herself!
Marieke Voorsluijs is an Amsterdam-based fiber artist and author of six craft books, and she used her skills to craft up a life-sized version of a son with whom she could cuddle at will. She wrote a blog post explaining what inspired her to knit a facsimile of a teenage boy.
“My son is reaching puberty. We used to cuddle all the time, but those days are becoming scarce. Now he rather hangs with friends, plays with his phone and listens to his iPod…I am a textiles designer and he often helps me and has great creative ideas. So we started to fantasize how we could visualize this puberty gap. So I suggested to make a cuddly version of him!”
I’m not surprised the actual human son was cool with it. Shoving the knitted son under the covers when you sneak out to a party is a lot more convincing then a bunch of pillows! It looks like the two are getting along well.
And the knitted son even takes on a few of the real one’s chores.
The knitted version still spends too much time on his phone though…
A local museum even put the astonishingly well-made “boy” on display.
Sure, it’s a little creepy. I sure wouldn’t want to wake up with that thing standing in the corner. But it’s really well-made, and nobody’s getting hurt. Unless she starts using it as a voodoo doll…