Just my opinion....I love real hardwood..but stick with me a minute..When i bought my house which was my great grandmas i pulled all the green shag carpet out of it and it had pine T&G 1x4 flooring that looked new.I sanded,stained and put about 4 coats of poly on it.Looked like a piece of glass was laying on the floors it was so slick and shiny.5 years the kiddos had it beat to pieces from dropping toys and chit on it.Now i know pine dont make a really good flooring cause its to soft.When i remodeled i was gonna lay some new flooring.The wood i found was a prefinished mingled hardwood that had alotta dark and light wood in it.Just the flooring was gonna cost me around $4500..Think it was a lil over $5 per sq ft.Instead of spending that much on a floor that will eventually..(maybe 15 years) have to be refinished i went with a 25 yr 10mm laminate flooring for .99 per sq ft.After i bought padding i ended up with around $1000 in all my flooring.If it last me 15 years I'll replace it with laminate again for less than what i would spend paying someone to refinish my real hardwood and I'll have a new floor without all the mess of refinishing.For me it just made more sense money wise to go with laminate.I have layed many many thousands of ft of laminate and despite it being thin it is surprisingly strong as long as it dont get wet.My kids can drop big toys or i can drop a knife or something and it dont dent or chip.Its a personal preference for everyone and money isnt a big deal to some but for me i just prefer laminate.