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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not refer to my baby's bedroom as a nursery...

68 replies

HooverFairy · 03/08/2013 08:54

I have always referred to my baby's bedroom as his bedroom, because it is. I don't understand why people would call a baby's room a nursery, to me a nursery is somewhere where your child is looked after and if this was at home then it implies you have a nanny etc. and this would be the baby's living space rather than their bedroom.

I know I'm BU but it really winds me up, I have a friend who is having a baby and I have to repeatedly look at pictures of the 'nursery' when they add something new. IDK, maybe it just sounds a bit snobby to say 'nursery' when it is a bedroom.

Anyone else?

OP posts:
Bowlersarm · 03/08/2013 13:04

Nursery is fine.

Study is even finer.

People have some strange old ideas....

MiaowTheCat · 03/08/2013 13:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JRmumma · 03/08/2013 13:18

I generally get irritated by most things people say like this.

'Little man' instead of son anyone??? Grrrrr

2468BONJOVI · 03/08/2013 13:26

YANBU. As someone else said, it is all about selling stuff. Babies need very little that can be bought at first (they mostly need cuddles and milk and even if you are not bfing it is not allowed to advertise the milk and they aren't going to drink more than they need anyway) so the word "nursery" is part of a drive to create the desire, or perceived need, for things that look a certain way and cost a certain amount.

When dd1 was born I had done very little in our crummy rented house (had spd). We had a moses basket in our room. That was it. I was very ashamed when MIL asked to see "The Nursery" as in that sense we did not have one. I was easily ashamed in those days.

JRmumma · 03/08/2013 13:32

People keep asking me what theme i have in my 'nursery' and this drives me mad too. Apparently you have to buy everything available from one of the mothercare/kiddicare/babiesrus ranges from bedding to curtains to lampshades for your nursery. Otherwise you just don't care about your child!

Pagwatch · 03/08/2013 13:35

I think that smacks of massive over thinking.
My dc had a room when they were out of the basket next to our bed. That room was for them, either because they were the only one or because we had enough rooms for them to have their own and avoid waking their sibling(s) up.
We were not thrown into a spending frenzy because we tended to call it the nursery. In fact I think it was sometimes the nursery, sometimes the baby's room, sometimes DCs name room.

MardyBra · 03/08/2013 13:47

I want a butler's pantry.

And a butler.

In fact, I'd settle for Pag's house.

PeazlyPops · 03/08/2013 13:49

YABU to give it more than a fleeting thought.

badguider · 03/08/2013 13:52

'nursery' to me implies a small baby-sized room with a cot which might not necessarily get away with being called a bedroom as it'd be a tight fit with adult sized furniture. That's because our baby is in a 'boxroom' rather than a 'bedroom'.
Previously this same 'boxroom' was a 'study' because it had a desk and computer and I used it to work from home...
If I just call it 'the boxroom' then that could mean a room for any purpose really whereas 'nursery' or 'study' refer to what it's used for like all the other rooms in the house; living, kitchen, dining..bath..

I'm not sure why it's so funny to have a study or home office? Is working from home a funny thing? Confused

UniqueAndAmazing · 03/08/2013 13:54

I agree - I've never called DD's bedroom a nursery.

she still sleeps in with us, and her room is used as a laundry room (and also to hold her clothes and stuff)
but she's not used it as a room like anursery (which does imply that it is a room that she spends daytime in too)

Pagwatch · 03/08/2013 14:10

A butler would be great.
I would want a rope thing that you pull when you want to order gin tea too.

squoosh · 03/08/2013 14:19

I want a butler's pantry Envy

And a butler, to clear up all of life's little mishaps such as a dead body in the library.

'Nursery' is a bit aspirational in my opinion. It's a box room dearie.

catgirl1976 · 03/08/2013 22:12

I want a butler too

My parents house has bells to ring for servants. There's a box thing in the dining room above the door with little stars in it which wobble according to which bell has been pressed

However, despite spending my childhood pressing the bells in different rooms, no one ever came :(

I would like a Butler exactly like Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster

Pagwatch · 03/08/2013 22:15

Ooh I would love one of those Catgirl!

I was so born in the wrong era. And class. And income bracket.

Pagwatch · 03/08/2013 22:16

I would have been brilliant as the one that shacked up with the chauffeur in Downton Abbey. Brilliant.

primallass · 03/08/2013 22:19

My babies had a 'nursery' for all their stuff and daytime naps then slept in with us at night. When they went in their for nights it became their bedroom.

Shrugged · 03/08/2013 22:20

I associate it with the kind of period novels where the children live in a day nursery and a night nursery on the top floor, complete with faithful Ancient Retainer nanny, and going down to see their parents for half an hour for afternoon tea.

But then my toddler has a box room with a changing mat on a chest of drawers, and he sleeps, starfish style, in the middle of our bed.

IceNoSlice · 03/08/2013 22:29

We call DS's room a nursery. There is no bed in it, therefore it is not a bedroom. It is a tiny room, only really big enough for his cot and small chest of drawers. And when DC2 arrives and is ready to sleep on his/her own, DS will move into his bedroom (currently the spare room) and the baby will have the nursery.

On the other hand, we have no plans for a study. Our computers are laptops or tablets, so no need for a computer desk. Online bills and bank statements. A few box files in a cupboard in the living room. Go paper free!

CodandLobster · 03/08/2013 22:35

Well I don't think you are BU at all.

I hate it when people call it a nursery. It's a bedroom FFS. It's really pretentious and I think people say it because they think it makes themselves/ their houses sound posher.

I got very confused by a friend who told me their DD2 had gone into the nursery at 6 weeks old, when I thought she was having a year's maternity leave - turns out she was just moving rooms....

....can't bloody stand "little man" either FWIW!

LimitedEditionLady · 03/08/2013 23:08

When you buy your baby bedding in shops they call it nursery bedding.Guess that doesn't deter the use of the word!

themaltesefalcon · 03/08/2013 23:12

I live in a one-roomed flat. Everything is "the room." Simple!

Original poster
HooverFairy · 03/08/2013 23:26

I'm in the UK, AFAIK it's not really a standard term, more a term coined by shops so the can add extra ££ to their baby products as a few have pointed out. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is irritated by it, I know it's because it sounds so pretentious to me. Shrugged exactly this!

JR I think we're on the same page, 'nursery' is not the only baby related term that irritates me.

flipchart I didn't even consider being flamed for this, it's such a non issue, it's meant as a more lighthearted post really. Hopefully others will realise this! But nevermind if they don't .

OP posts:
Suttonmum1 · 03/08/2013 23:42

In my opinion a nursery is a suite of rooms used by baby(s) and their nanny as per the type of set up the royal baby will have (eg also Mary Poppins). A single room at home is a bedroom, no matter how much twee matching soft furnishing is lavished on it.

breatheslowly · 05/08/2013 20:45

YANBU. I found the whole "have you got your nursery ready?" thing quite odd when I was pregnant. DD slept in our room for the first 6 months and we moved house when she was 5 months, so having a nursery ready would have been a waste. Perhaps I am a bit mean, but the whole nursery thing with coordinated bedding and pink or blue paint is excessive. And when does a "nursery" become a bedroom?

SamHamwidge · 05/08/2013 21:19

I agree with pps who say it is a marketing ploy. When I hear the word nursery my mind automatically jumps to a mamas and papa catalogue with perfectly matching furniture and soft lighting. In other words, spend megabucks or you are not worthy of having dc.

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