The Time My Kids Tried to Reassemble a Bed: A Comedy of Errors

So, here’s a little life lesson: When two teenagers decide to reassemble a piece of furniture on their own, make sure you’ve hidden anything breakable, and possibly have a contractor on standby.

It all started when my son and daughter decided to tackle putting my daughter’s bed back together. After rearranging her room, the bed was in pieces and they figured it would be a fun project to handle themselves. I mean, how hard could it be? Spoiler alert: It wasn’t easy.

They laid out all the parts, screws, and tools like seasoned pros, convinced they had everything under control. My son, of course, immediately grabbed the electric screwdriver, determined to show off his mechanical prowess. That’s when the first hiccup hit—changing the screwdriver bit.

What should have been a simple task turned into a 10-minute ordeal, complete with my son pressing random buttons and turning it over in confusion. Meanwhile, my daughter stood there with that classic teenage look of amusement and mild disbelief. A few “dial-a-friend” calls later, and they finally got the screwdriver working. Victory! Or so they thought.

Feeling confident after conquering the screwdriver, they moved on to the next challenge: flipping one of the larger wooden panels. And that’s when things took a turn for the worse. In a move of sheer teenage enthusiasm (or impatience), my son grabbed the panel, gave it a quick flip, and WHAM—right into the wall.

They both froze. My daughter burst out laughing, and my son, trying to look unphased, stared at the freshly made hole in the drywall. I’m pretty sure he was hoping no one noticed. But of course, his sister was already in tears from laughing, thoroughly enjoying his DIY fail.

After the laughter died down, they regrouped. There was still a bed to put together, after all. But as they started to piece the frame together, it became clear that something wasn’t quite right. Extra screws were lying around, parts weren’t fitting together, and the whole thing was starting to resemble modern art more than a functional bed.

That’s when my daughter, with her dry sense of humor, looked at her brother and said, “You sure you didn’t skip a step?” Sure enough, a quick look at the instructions confirmed that they had skipped not just a step—but an entire page.

Hours later, after plenty of laughter, frustration, and one unfortunate hole in the wall, they finally managed to assemble the bed. Was it a smooth process? Absolutely not. But did they have a story to tell? Definitely.

The moral of this story? Always read the instructions, know how to use the tools, and when flipping large wooden panels—watch out for walls. Oh, and having some spackle on hand doesn’t hurt either.