--- title: This Mom Knit a Life-Size Version of Her Teenage Son description: This mother has invented a simple solution to help parents cope with their children pulling away as they go through puberty. canonical: https://time.com/4179576/mom-knits-life-size-version-of-teenage-son/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-13T21:13:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:28:44.608Z og:title: This Mom Missed Cuddling With Her Teenage Son So She Knit a Life-Size Version of Him og:description: And you thought your parents were smothering you og:url: https://time.com/4179576/mom-knits-life-size-version-of-teenage-son/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Mom Missed Cuddling With Her Teenage Son So She Knit a Life-Size Version of Him twitter:description: And you thought your parents were smothering you twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Mom Missed Cuddling With Her Teenage Son So She Knit a Life-Size Version of Him  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 13, 2016 9:13 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 13, 2016 9:13 PM UTC This mother has invented a simple solution to help parents cope with their children pulling away as they go through puberty. And luckily, all dear old mom and dad will need is a ball of yarn, some [knitting needles](http://time.com/3706927/australia-penguin-sweaters/) and a lot of extra time on their hands. When Marieke Voorsluijs’s son reached adolescence and stopped wanting to cuddle with her, the [self-proclaimed](https://www.instagram.com/mariekevoorsluijs%5Fclubgeluk/) “textiles enthusiast” decided to [knit a life-size version](http://time.com/3585766/artist-glass-yarn-knitting-sculpture/) of him who would always be available for quality snuggling time. Voorsluijs​, a designer for Amsterdam knitting shop [Club Geluk](http://www.clubgeluk.nl/english), wrote on [Bored Panda](http://www.boredpanda.com/knitted-son-club-geluk/) that she was inspired to create the knitted doppelgänger when her son began to become more independent. “We used to cuddle all the time, but those days are becoming scarce,” she said. “We laugh a lot about the stretching gap between his needs and mine. Him needing more of his own space and my covert needs to keep on smothering him with maternal love. I am a textiles designer and he often helps me and has great creative ideas. So we started to fantasize how we could visualize this puberty gap. So I suggested to make a cuddly version of him!” However, the replica is actually a wearable suit rather than a fully stuffed doll, according to [Mashable](http://mashable.com/2016/01/13/mom-knit-son/?utm%5Fcampaign=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm%5Fcid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm%5Fsource=feedly&utm%5Fmedium=webfeeds#Cf3lDFP69OqC), so maximum cuddling can still only be achieved if Voorsluijs’s son dons his yarn likeness. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4179576/mom-knits-life-size-version-of-teenage-son/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4179576/mom-knits-life-size-version-of-teenage-son/"},"headline":"This Mom Missed Cuddling With Her Teenage Son So She Knit a Life-Size Version of Him","datePublished":"2016-01-13T21:13:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:28:44.608Z","description":"And you thought your parents were smothering you","url":"https://time.com/4179576/mom-knits-life-size-version-of-teenage-son/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Mothers","Teenagers","Weird News","Dolls"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4179576/mom-knits-life-size-version-of-teenage-son/","name":"This Mom Missed Cuddling With Her Teenage Son So She Knit a Life-Size Version of Him"}}]}] ```