This Sweet Volvo Commercial Normalizes Co-sleeping with Older Kids

This Volvo ad nails parenting

Co-sleeping happens in millions of families throughout the world. While there is no shortage of opinions on the matter, it seems parents who let older children co-sleep often take heat for their choices. That’s why this sweet Volvo add not only normalizes co-sleeping, it shows it’s a natural part of what makes some families unplug and reenergize.

The new advert, which showcases the manufacturer’s new Volvo Recharge Hybrid Plug-in model, is titled “The Chase.” It features two parents and their adorable daughter and follows them about their hectic day of work, school, and home life—all while needing various devices to charge. The daughter, who looks to be in elementary school, can be seen waking up in her parent’s bed and ends up there at night. Whether she starts off in her own bed or they have a family sleep situation remains to be seen, but as every parent knows, if your kid wants to be in your bed, they will find a way in.

In the opening scene, the mom is half-off the bed in a position all parents are familiar with, while the daughter happily sleeps sprawled out in the middle. The dad, screeched all the way on the other side, looks like he’s barely hanging on for dear life. In the closing scene, the daughter is flipped 180 with her feet on the pillows and her head at the foot of the bed, the dad trying and failing to miss his daughter’s limbs.

Basically, it’s what every parent’s bed has looked like at least once in their children’s lives. And that’s the point. Some kids are perfectly happy to stay in their own beds from the time they are little until they are grown. Others, like my son, went to great lengths to escape his crib as soon as he could walk and climb into my bed. He did so until he was around eight. Just when I thought he would never stop sneaking into my room, he did. And that was that.

Bottom line—whatever works for your family, works for your family. It’s nice to see an ad that not only shows the real chaos of family life, but celebrates that family just the way it is.