I’ll stick with ikea until the kids move out
Yeah, this is it for us. I grew up in a home with a lot of “grandma’s heirloom dining table” type items that I was punished for bumping into, spilling on, etc. While I do believe in teaching kids respect, it seems like a lot of unnecessary stress for both parents and kids to use this stuff as your daily driver and we don’t have the space for special-occasions-only furniture.
I used to wear only men’s pants, including cargo pants, and oh boy is it disgusting how much better I get treated by service workers, etc. since switching to vaguely fashionable women’s pants. Fit issues aside, it’s a lot more complicated than “just buy men’s pants” (although I guess at least cargo pants for women are back “in” now?)