General Chat

as the oldest of 5 kids, I often wished my parents had bought a CAGE for my brothers

:-D

:-D :-D :-D

Thank heaven for the Mothercare lobster basket!

The wooden playpen that I had as a child had no floor.

The house we lived in was a typical terrace house in a Lancashire mill town, the front door opened right on to the street, no garden.

I'm told that Mum put me in the playpen outside the front door one sunny morning, went back into the house and came out minutes later to see me following the older kiddies down the street to school

I'd lifted the playpen up onto my shoulders :-D

I was about 15-18 months old


we didn't have a playpen for our daughter ............... we went away for a year when she was 15 months old, and somehow survived the 6 months between her starting to walk at 9 months and leaving without one. It would not have been a wooden one though, as the ones available then were all sort of fabric with metal supports and with a bouncy floor..

I believe wood ones are now avalable here, if you search around

Just asked OH - he seems to think our tree went into the play pen as welll. He called in Mother's DMZ :-D

I had one of the old square wooden ones too.

On her 1st christmas my 5 month old had learned to go backwards in a baby walker and was able to pull the ornaments off the christmas tree.

The tree was finally moved to.... inside the playpen !

I used one for a very short time.
My sister was staying with us, with her children aged 5 and a year.
My daughter was 9 months old.
They were okay in the house, plenty of doors to close to stop them getting out of the living room etc, but the garden had a shared path - and the neighbours kept leaving the gate open.
We put the large wooden playpen on the lawn, staked it down with tent pegs, put the youngest two in it, while we did some gardening.
Within 10 minutes, by both pushing on the same side, they'd tipped the whole thing over!!!

I was given one for my youngest son but he hated it.

The eldest, however, used it to play with his Lego. He was happy as his little brother couldn't interfere
:-D :-D :-D

Mine was a godsend when my daughter was newborn. Her brother then 3 loved to pick her up like a dolly and loved her to bits. Not so good when he used to try and haul her out of her pram. I used to lay her inside it so that he could still talk and play with her but not do her any accidental injury by lifting her about. He still loves cuddling her 28 years on :-D :-D :-D.

He used to climb out of it at a very early age so I gave up using it for him. :-D :-D

It would need to be a cage Rose or a 6 foot high sided pen, even then I bet the cat would get over it somehow. Grandson and wife (Luke's parents) have a new kitten, when they got her they thought they could keep her in the kitchen by putting the baby gate across the door covered in cardboard. They couldn't understand why each morning she was asleep on the settee in the lounge so they put her in the kitchen and watched. she somehow made herself really thin and got between the edge of the gate and the door frame. (I have seen the video, first the paw and then the whole body eases through, so funny).

The same as Chris - ours was originally mine, so you can guess how old it is. They aren't made to 'keep' now-a-days, are they ;-)

I used to put the ironing board in it, with one side of the play-pen up against the wall socket. No danger of them yanking at the iron lead, or the clothes dangling over the board.
If it was available, the eldest used to take refuge to do her colouring or whatever. Her young siblings weren't able to reach to scribble or run/crawl off with the crayons.

Dan loved his playpen, thank goodness as it was a godsend that I could put him in while I was looking after mum, he had it full of toys and played in it very happily.

But I must admit the thought of having a large playpen for myself that would keep the world at bay is very appealing to me but it would have to be one that kept cats out :-) fed up with muddy paws all across the desk and keyboard.

but I did. All those years ago he used to scream blue murder when he was put in it.

I gave up, could not stand it. However in those days I knitted constantly and sewed every stitch I could for myself and children and had the bright idea of using it myself.
The pen had a wooden floor so I put a small table in it with my electric sewing machine - I was happy and so was son crawling around in the room and he was safe from pins and scissors.

I expect other mothers did the same. Did you?