There is a new obsession taking over our home. Our son has recently become determined to have a treehouse.

How do you say no to your six year old dreaming about what feels like a fundamental childhood experience? Whilst offering so much with the expat lifestyle there is no denying that there are aspects of the temporary-ness of it does mean compromising something. And this certainly pinches.

It is the first thing he has asked me about every morning, a wee kiss, a stroke on my face and whispered ‘Mummy…’ and when I reluctantly open my eyes…’…when can I have a treehouse?’

He has become so single minded about this project that he’s ready to jump on the next plane home, if it means we will build him this treehouse. He can’t see that by leaving Bangkok we will leave his friends and the things he loves. My husband and I are not quite ready to leave Bangkok, knowing that once this chapter is done New Zealand is where we will be ultimately, why not enjoy this whilst we can.

We have been researching Pintrest, binge watching Treehouse Masters on YouTube and have even made a plan of the treehouse. It is an epic dream treehouse with many balconies, a crows nest lookout, swing, elevator and even a glass trapdoor over the river to fish from (our home does not have a river). Who am I to quash his dreams? To dose them with a large glass of reality, and practicalities like building codes and budgets? Dream big little guy!

His Dad and I are constantly quizzed on which bits of the plan we like the best. And we can’t answer the same way twice. He loved the idea of me sharing it here so we never lose his plan.

Whilst we do live in a house and have trees it is a rented compound and I can only imagine the gardeners face if we started building the treehouse in the massive palms up behind our house. My son knows that back home we have a section full of trees and constantly asks where we could build his treehouse. I remember him taking me down to the section to look at trees before we moved to find the right spot.

What we haven’t told him is that when we bought the house there was already a perfect treehouse in a giant pine, it took my husband and his dad a whole weekend to take down the treehouse. And the pine tree quickly followed to become nearly 10 years of firewood! This let in loads of light and created an open space. We didn’t know at the time that in four years we’d have a wee boy more than keen on the treehouse. We might just keep that one to ourselves for another couple decades.

The ironic thing is that whilst we are living here temporarily the reality is that he would be more likely to get his dream treehouse here in Thailand with their fluid building restrictions and low cost of labour. The flipside is New Zealand will diminish many of his dreams through sheer cost and building codes. The hard realities of life at six years old.

There are no less than 49 crazy and amazing treehouses listed on AirBnB in Thailand, an excuse for a weekend away? No problem.