Dream Tent

Pop Up Privacy

• What: Pop Up Dream Tent
• When: Three years and up
• Why: Create private space, easy to set up, stores compactly
• Where: Amazon

My oldest child received a Dream Tent for his seventh birthday. He was over the moon. We installed it that night in about the time it took to climb his ladder a couple of times and haven’t removed it since, and that was months ago.

I’m not sure exactly what my kid loves about the tent. It goes in an arch over a portion of the bed, creating a kind of cave complete with curtains that can be tied back. The dark material offers additional light shielding. The end opposite the curtains is open, so there’s no concern about airflow. It works well against a wall or headboard, but our tent has that area open since he sleeps in a loft bed with rails instead.

It’s slick polyester material, much like all play tents for kids. It certainly wouldn’t do any good for actual camping, but in our kids’ shared room, my son has really taken to it. Should we ever want to take it down, it folds flat and goes back into its zippered bag. Because we have yet to remove it, I can’t speak to how well that works, and if it’s an easy fit or more like wrestling an overtired kid into pajamas.

Because it effectively shields the only part of his loft bed normally visible, it makes his bed an excellent hiding place during games of hide and seek. It claims to fit any twin size bed, though we’ve only ever had it on the one. Our loft bed has very little clearance between the mattress and the ceiling, and it still has plenty of room for the arch of the Dream Tent. Because it’s malleable, I can squish it out of the way to lean over and give hugs and kisses or tuck him in. So while it provides a nice visual barrier, it isn’t going to restrain anyone or anything more than the average stuffed animal.

I’ve been tempted in the last week or so to move the tent to the opposite side of his bed, where it abuts his sibling’s bed to create more privacy and distance between the two of them. They love being close together, but don’t have the same sleep schedule, and my son likes to wake his sister by tossing stuffed animals at her. I’m thinking the tent could be strategically positioned to prevent such antics, or, at the very least, make aim more challenging.

We used the curtains for the first few weeks before my son realized they could be tied back. Now that we’ve tied them, we have never untied them. More impressively, the tent hasn’t moved. It installs with some bumpy white plastic u shapes that slide underneath the mattress to hold it in place. Despite having multiple friends in his loft bed, as well as a rambunctious seven year old daily, our Dream Tent hasn’t budged.

We have the space adventure option, which looks like a night sky with some additional planets and such that you would never see in real life. But the Dream Tent also comes in winter wonderland, unicorn fantasy, and dinosaur island themes.

I certainly can’t say we need this item, but since my kid loves it so much, I’m glad he got one.