Most kids grow out of cuddling eventually, and parents have to find a way to deal with it. But one Dutch woman, Marieke Voorsluijs, found an ingenious way to cope with the lack of hugs from her teenage son: by knitting herself a new one.
Marieke, who describes herself as "textiles enthusiast" (we would never have guessed) created a life-sized replica of her son who could never turn down a cuddle.
Marie explains how she came up with the idea in an article on Bored Panda.
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She wrote: "I am a professional knitter who likes to knit weird things for my brand Club Geluk.
"We knit realistic everyday stuff with lots of details and even wrote a book about it. To set the bar a little higher regarding my knitting skills I thought of knitting my son. He liked it and we worked together on it."
According to Time, Marieke said she was inspired to create a knitted version of her son when her real-life offspring began to crave independence.
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"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 fantasise how we could visualise this puberty gap. So I suggested to make a cuddly version of him!"
The incredibly lifelike creation has knitted clothes, including a slogan jumper that we secretly kind of want, red trainers and a baseball cap, and even a knitted iPod and headphones.
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The endeavour, which took two months to complete, was described by Marieke as a "fun family art project".
The creation is not just an inanimate replacement son, but an outfit that can actually be worn by Marieke's son or his brother.
You can see Marieke's knitted son, and many of her other incredible knitted creations, on her Instagram page @mariekevoorsluijs.
Topics: Real