According to GQ, Disney World in Orlando is now offering luxury man caves for tired dads. The highbrow lad mag reckons Disney’s new Copper Creek Cabins – $1835 per night cathedrals to manly interior design – have been created to give (wealthy) dads something to look forward to while the kids obsess about meeting Mickey.
It’s a new take on an old idea: that dads need somewhere to call their own, where they can indulge their masculine tastes away from the rather different preoccupations of children and wives. It’s a place to put the pool table, the dart board, the brushed steel bar, the projector, the football trophies. It’s a place to settle down to entire afternoons (chance would be a fine thing) of televised sports.
Man Cave: a nice to have or necessity?
Do dads need a man cave (whether at Disney World or at home)? Men certainly seems to think so. According to a study of 2,000 men conducted in 2014, 85% of men claim to need their own space. It was all connected to the idea of ‘me time’, with the research suggesting that modern men have only 58 minutes a week to spend on themselves. Another study found that 8 out of ten male respondents reckoned having a space to call their own had helped their relationships.
Four in ten of the men in the first study admitted to spending more time in the bathroom than needed, just to grab some time alone. Would they not be better off with a man cave?
TV presenter and dad Ben Fogle is a big fan of the man cave. He states: “As bachelor pads make way for family homes, the encroachment of girlfriends, family and children forces many men away from soft furnishings and toys to the end of their gardens.
“We crave a space where we can do “man things” in splendid isolation.”
Shed heaven
Easier said than done, of course. Many families struggle to fit the kids into their modest dwellings, let alone a whole room dedicated to man stuff. But Fogle hints at one answer, at least for those with a bit of outdoor space. The end of the garden is home to a very British version of the man cave – the shed.
Oh we do love a shed. Even a modest outhouse, packed with garden utensils, can be a great place to spend an hour with a bottle of real ale and Test Match Special. But sheds can be far grander than that. There’s even a Shed of the Year competition to celebrate the best of British sheds. These incredible constructions are often lovingly created as ultimate man caves.
So no, we’re not sure dads need to have a man cave, but after seeing some of the best examples on offer, some of us probably really, really want one. What’s in your man cave?
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[…] You will be a great dad. You really will. But learning and applying all these new skills can be exhausting. To properly recharge your daddy batteries, you may need a space to call your own, as previously discussed on DaddiLife. […]