This weeks man cave tour comes after I saw yet another great Reddit Submission on the r/mancave subreddit. Many of you may have had this very thought before ‘How can I create a man cave when I have children?!’ And I think Emerson has the answers for you with this room.
As you can see from the images, Emerson is very unapologetic in respects to the fact that all of the usual man cave furniture is present, the big sofas, poker table & Widescreen TV on top of the unit.
But as you can see, the children have slowly but surely taken over the room and there are now children’s toys in boxes that are stacked up in every single available space around the outside of the room.
And to most man cave owners, the very thought of your child stepping foot into your sacred space could send shivers down your spine. It’s the one room in the house that is safe from all of that crap usually!
But it got me thinking that this use of space and storage is exactly how a man cave should look (if you have children) and it encompasses everything that a man cave should be.
When your children are young I can only imagine that they completely take over your lives, what was once a quiet double act has now turned into a family of 3 or maybe 4+ and the amount of space in your house has dwindled dramatically.
Emerson was thrown up a very important decision and it looks like he has made exactly the right one.
Why can’t you have your cake and eat it when it comes to man caves, why do the children have to have their own little space and the man cave crumble into nothing?
The simple answer is, it doesn’t.
Emerson has proved that both spaces can live side by side and be used as and when they are needed for each space.
The image above just shows that a poker table and a set of children’s toys shouldn’t have to sit in different rooms. When the guys come over they need to accept the fact that you have children and that space for the man cave is now hotly contended, the main point is the poker table and the TV has remained.
You can still have the guys over to play poker or watch the big game, and the fact that the kids toys are scattered around the room should make no difference to them whatsoever.
If they’re your friends they won’t even bat an eye lid, they’ll just be happy they have a safe space to watch a sports game or play poker with everyone else.
So for anyone out there that now has a family and feels like they need to give up every inch of space to their new little terrors, take Emerson’s example of this as a beacon of hope for you and your man cave.
Allow the children’s toys & playsets to mix with your own ‘set of toys and playsets’ and accept the fact that you have a family now. But also remember that as a man you are entitled to have your own space that is unapologetically yours to use when you want to.
The children may play in there during the day, but when the time comes you know that the kid’s toys will be brushed aside and the tensest game of poker will be played and the best sports games will be watched like they were intended to be.
I want to thank Emerson for sending us all of these images and allowing his amazing space to be featured on the site.
If you’ve got a man cave that is slowly ebing overtaken by the children in our life then embrace the change. One day they won’t be children and you’ll wish they were spending more time with you in there.
But until then mix the ‘play rooms’ together and allow the organised chaos to unfold. you’ll have some great stories to tell over the years if you can do so.
If you have a man cave and you think it could feature on this site then please feel free to email us some pictures – kitoutmymancave@gmail.com and we’ll be in touch!