To think that "wanting the best" for your child doesn't necessarily mean spending the most money? (aka CallaLilli's brass-necked colleague rides again!)

[CallaLilli]

So Ms Brass Neck started speaking to me again today, purely to tell me she'd just purchased a £400 high chair for her yet-to-be-born child. I said "oh really?" and she asked me what I did when DD was weaned. I told her I spent a tenner on a second-hand chair from Gumtree, to which her response was to wrinkle her nose and say "Second-hand? Well I only want the best for my child" and walked off! She's the gift that keeps on giving, isn't she?

I guess I'm still being "punished" for refusing to bring back almost the entire contents of a French parapharmacie for her next month. Oh well, I'm sure I'll survive, although since when did buying second-hand mean you weren't "wanting the best" for your child?

How can you even spend £400 on a high chair?? Is it made of gold? Who sells high chairs costing that much?

fluffy yup. It's bizarre on mumsnet, people openly mock others for spending money. You'd get torn apart though if you made even the teeniest comment that implied someone was a cheapskate.

IMO a Tripp Trapp is worth spending money on as it converts into a regular chair and will last til a child is about 5 or 6. A £400 high chair though? Not so much! (Cider, I guess it was a Bloom chair as I don't know of any others that cost that much.)

The next item you purchase, could you say you got it out of someone's skip? Embellish it a bit, you had to do it in the dark etc...

Definitely do this

Tripp trapp is really comfy - I sit in DCs when working from home.

The most expensive I can see is the brother max high chair and that's £330 from kiddicare

We spent quite a lot of money ( not £400) on a high chair. It did turn out to be worth it in the end because he needed a lot of support and we could fit him it till he was 4.

Oh god I have a friend like this, turned down a barely used MacLaren ( top of range) didn't want an ikea high hair etc etc. IKEA high chairs are brilliant.

They are tens of thousands in debt but that baby has the best of everything?? I'll never get it.

She did buy a stupidly expensive high chair, it's too big and a nightmare to clean....fool.

Why are you still talking to this person, OP?

If she persists in her accounts of how much money she's spending on her unborn offspring, tell her that an exaggerated fear of anything secondhand is a bit lower middle class. Ask her if she keeps the plastic covering on her sofa for years. Tell her you plan to feed your child in future from dumpster-diving out the back of Asda. 'It's only slightly out of date!'

I had a friend who always had to "one-up" everyone with purchases. Problem was, she had very little clue about quality, and just always bought the best-known brand. If I had anything else, she looked down on it - even though, on several occasions, I had spent more than she had (which I didn't care about - sometimes I bought something more expensive because the reviews said it would last longer or whatever). Then she'd say to someone "Oh, Bupcake only got a X" and they'd say "Oh, they're meant to be fantastic", and she'd be fuming!

More than 5 or 6
We had an Antilop for weaning but then got the tripp trapp so DD can climb on and off by herself and will last until she is 10 or more (from what I see with my SIL)

Really Tiny? I didn't know that. That makes them positively bargainous!

YANBU, from bitter experience money definitely does not equal quality. We bought a bloom fresco five years ago because I thought it looked so cool but it turned out to be a nightmare - DS was never comfortable in it and it was a nightmare to clean. The only redeeming feature(sort of, it would have been cheaper to buy a regular chair!) is that at 5 he's still able to use it as a chair. We're going for an ikea one this time around and DH can't get enough of saying told you so!

Wow...she's a real treasure isn't she?!

FWIW....I earn six figures in the City (sorry for stealth boast) and not only have I bought my maternity wear on eBay (oh the horror!) but will be buying all my DC's things second hand too.

Why spend perfectly good money on items they grow out of in months and that you can get new or nearly new for a fraction of the price?

I'm usually lovely to people at work...but I think I'd have to take her down a peg or two!

If my Dh spent 3x monthly salary on my engagement ring, i would kill him!! What a bloody waste of money!

Sounds very insecure and PFB.

With pfb things were new, but not expensive (by the by, baby stuff has become EXTORTIONATE since had DC1 now nearly 13, think our new mid range pram was just under 200).

Now on DC three and we have gone for a second hand pram. Got DC2's old one, mother care's own three wheeler thing for off road country walks- we have two large dogs and it gets bloody filthy being used everyday in winter, and a second hand clean and respectable one for shopping/days out etc.

Not buying a cot or similar this time- DC2 refused to sleep in it ever, and screamed the place down, so that was a complete waste of money, it got used a an expensive and glorified place to store clean clothes.... Lots of people are horrified by us not buying a cot in advance this time, I want to see if I can put this one down without it howling yet...

Oh, to have a forest to forage in, fluffypenguinbelly!

I have to scoop my leaves out of puddles in the street and dry them out before weaving them together to make nappies. If I had access to a forest I could whittle baby shoes from old bark...

I don't think the OP is so much bothered that 'D'Colleague has spent £400 on a high chair....people can spend what they like....but more that she's looking down on OP for not spending the same.

I have to scoop my leaves out of puddles in the street and dry them out before weaving them together to make nappies.

You're shamelessly blingy, Neophyte. I knitted all my baby's clothes out of the fuzzy lint you take out of the tumble dryer trap. Only I don't have a tumble-dryer, because that would be a bit Footballers' Wives, so I tour the nearest villages going door to door begging for lint.

Only £400?! Why isn't she getting her darling THIS one...

gigibrooks.com/furniture/nursery/highchairs/eldermore-highchair-in-distressed-black.html

Because it should only have the best?!

I saw this highchair in a "top ten" in a baby magazine I was given for free by a private scan place.

I'm all for a long lasting investment, like a good coat (only for adults who don't grow!) rather than a 'this season' fashion one, and the high chairs like trip trap which last years sound good if you can afford the price. But this one is just silly.

I love our IKEA antilop.

Oh how the rich live!

She'll be cursing herself when she realises she should have bought an ikea antilop like everyone else.

I'm always amazed that people like your colleague find someone foolish enough to breed with them :o

Ampers nappies are foul, fullmof plastic and bring most babies out in a rash. All the new mummy earth mummies will look down on her at the first nct coffee morning, mark my words, and just see how quickly she hot foots it over to waitrose for their own brand ones.

Nothing beats a 15 quid antilop highchair from IKEA, as she'll relasie when she tries to clean the concreted weetabix out if her designer one.

I agree that she will have been fully aware that you made the second hand for a tenner comment to wind her up and act superior. She took it as a criticism of her spending (which it was). So it's a bit disingenuous to act like she just randomly came out with that comment. I agree you both sound as bad as each other.

You're lucky to have puddles to get leaves out of, NeophyteStarfish, I have to resort to clearing out our drain cover....

People are fascinating when it comes to money and babies. We fall under the fairly typical heading of "not loaded but not too short" and the only reason we haven't bought more second-hand is because we don't have a car and getting stuff home becomes a pain. I bought most of my maternity clothes and half of DS's wardrobe on eBay, though, and most looked brand new.

I was quite surprised to find out one friend had spent £500 on a cot bed - but then she likes it, they'll use it every day, and what she spends her money on is hardly my business. After all, I was daft enough to spend £15 on a cat net to keep Fang off MiniFang's cot bed. The cat basically laughed in my face.