Aibu for thinking baby pens are necessary?

[BySereneMintSwan]

I have a baby who is very much on the move.

I'm looking at baby proofing the house and downstairs is open plan, but a step down to the kitchen and an unused wood burner fire (slate base).

I feel that play pens are quite restrictive but I don't think it's possible to baby proof the ground floor -socks, tables, chairs, radiator, toy storage etc. although downstairs is somewhat spacious for a terrace house it's also quite small.

Baby never took to the bouncer and he's 10 months.

Thoughts?

Sorry didn't know where else to post

I think the responses show the difference in posters’ homes.

Some places are easy to baby proof, some aren’t. If I lived in my friends’s older house with multiple rooms, and a few small steps to the kitchen, two baby gates would be all I need.

In my very annoyingly open plan house, the play pen prevents DC from surfing on the dining table, opening and emptying every drawer, going into the kitchen, terrorising the pets, climbing and running on and falling off the couch, pulling the TV off its stand. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

The playpen I have has a gate which is usually open so she can come and go as she pleases if I am with her. It is also big enough that I can play in there with her if we want to.

But the reason I have it is so I can pop her in there and shut the gate if I need to start cooking and don’t want her at my feet, if I need to go to the loo, if I need to get something from upstairs, or answer the door.

It is a decent sized safe zone in a space that is impossible to baby proof effectively. The

I had two children close together so sometimes needed to keep the toddler safe while I dealt with the baby. Kept it in the sitting room with toys in. He was quite happy for a short time.

In my Northern European experience the UK is quite anti-play pen. They're great - your child gets to have its own safe play space with all their toys, without having to tidy up. My sister and I loved our play pen when we were little - it was very much our own space for independent playing. It's child-centric and it creates confident, independent kids. Plus you get to get on with your own things like weeing in peace and having a cuppa.

The whole behind bars/sad baby jail idea just seems ridiculous to me 😂

It'll do baby no harm to be in a playpen, the issue will be more whether they accept it, or scream merry hell because they don't want to be in there. My niece sits in hers all lovely, looking at books. With my two, it was a hindrance rather than a help because they wouldn't be consoled if we tried to put term in!

We found a good comprise was to basically turn the livingroom into a playpen. Stairgate to stop them escaping into kitchen, shut door the other side, so they can't get upstairs. Used a rail to barrier off about a meter one side of the room (from everyone), where the x box and marble hearth is. But they can see over gate when I'm cooking, so we're basically in the same room. And we're all together, whenever the adults are in the livingroom.

Plug socket covers just gave them a fascination with sockets, so we took them away.

Never understood the drama about radiators? Obviously if there's an open fire they could fall in (God forbid!), that's one thing. But if they touch a hot radiator, they have a reflex to pull their hands away, same as anyone else. And then know not to touch it the next time. I've never known it be an issue.

I remember the stress when our eldest became mobile! It's a big transition, but if you just have a bit of a sensible think, like you're doing, it will all work out fine x

They are quite small in the UK...

Ohhh baby pens.

I thought from the title that it was going to be pens vs colouring pencils.

Carry on without me please.

Do you really want your little one touching a pipe that's around 75 degrees?

Sock covers are actually really unsafe

They're 3.5 and 1.5 now, neither has ever been injured by a hot pipe or radiator 🤷‍♀️.

Ok?

We’ve had a pen for both of our boys, it was a big
plastic thing (like a poster above have posted a picture of). With the oldest we only really used it for short periods whilst we prepared meals and thing like that. With the youngest we used it a bit more as it kept him a bit more segregated from our eldests potentially choking hazard toys (eldest knew that only baby toys could go in the pen). We would get in the play pen with him to play though rather than him being in there alone.

This. They're used when you need to pop to loo, make their lunch or something. My ds had one at my mum and dads briefly (they were fantastic looking after him for us while we were at work) and it was used for short periods when mum/dad had to do something quick and know he was safe. He enjoyed a few minutes in there with lots of toys.

When I was born (1970) my parents ran and lived in an off-license/corner shop, so I spent a lot of time in a lobster pot playpen once I became mobile, until my younger brother came along and mum decided she couldn't cope with two of us and the shop, so they moved.

I've always been very good at amusing myself, whereas my brother is much more needy. I think it did me good!

I had a travel cot because I have three dogs, and it meant I could plonk baby down and leave her knowing she was safe for a few mins if I had to get the door of see to a dog etc. without the dogs I doubt I would have, but then I do have stair gates and was always able to use those to separate between rooms without having to close doors.

I've never been a big fan of pens because I got the impression some people fill them with toys and expect the children to entertain themselves/watch TV for long periods. I'm sure not everybody does, but certainly one of the mums in my baby group of five did. It was like her son was a new puppy, and when the pen disappeared as he could climb out he was awful for getting into things as he'd never learnt he shouldn't.

I have a newly crawling, extremely curious and busy 9.5 month old so I understand exactly where you are coming from!

We have baby gates to block off the kitchen, top and bottom of the stairs. We have a big open plan lounge/dining and have a 3mx3m area off to the side set up as a play space. I’m considering getting a gate to go across this area but otherwise we supervise her constantly.

If I need to go to the bathroom or go to the front gate to get a parcel or something I put her in an activity centre with a bouncy seat where she sits upright and it has toys attached to play with. Otherwise she comes with me - if I’m in the laundry she plays with the legs, if I’m in the kitchen she sits and plays with the Tupperware, if I’m putting away clean washing she’s sitting there playing.

Good luck - it’s a tough but wonderful phase, my girl is so proud of her new skills and it’s a delightful age.

We used one of these just for short periods e.g cooking dinner, going to toilet, doing hoovering etc. https://www.hauck.de/en/products/hauck-dream-n-play but got a mattress for it to make it more firm to stand in.

Just popped toys in there that I rotated to keep it interesting for the child . You'll find your toddler mostly likes to be near you so playpen for large majority of day is not going to work unless you plan to get in it with them too.

We didn't cover radiators and toddler was fine. Just taught them hot and no touch quickly. We did turn them down though during the day. I also got a free standing wooden fence thing if needed to block off certain areas and had a stair gate across the hallway entrance to stop child going near front door for extra safety in case we ever forgot to lock it.

The rest of my house is open plan in an L shape so I put a tapo camera facing the area that was away from the "lounge" part of the house so if toddler went to play in that part and I didn't want to follow (to ensure some independent play) id then pull up the tapo on my phone/tablet to keep an eye on them playing and make sure they were not suddenly going to do something that would hurt themselves.

Mine was on the move very early, so it was necessary. I paid a fortune for mine because it was a quality one and huge. A tiny pen just seems cruel

Something like this and I got two and joined them together

And obviously they're not in there for long periods

We never had one. I did worry about the radiator in the living room so got a guard for that.

I put cleaning products in a high up shelf. Knives too.

We got those corner things for the table. Moved ornaments and got a stair gate top and bottom

Just put away obviously dangerous things and crack on with life. No children I’ve ever known have had a playpen and they’ve all been completely fine.
i talked to them about dangers and had all the usual sharp edges in fireplaces and edges of coffee tables etc.
when you go the toilet they’ll either be happy continuing their play or they’ll scream blue murder for you to take them with you; a playpen won’t stop this. I think you are massively overthinking

We didn't have any small ornaments but that was about it we did have a travel cot with a few toys bit hardy used it

We had all place and just shut the kitchen door I figured kids learn by exploring

We’ve got a travel cot that’s also a playpen. Our little one isn’t quite crawling her (she does the slug as we call it!) but I’m planning on having it in the lounge for the times I need to nip to the loo or answer the door etc. but not to use it for long periods.

I have a play pen. It's not been used that much but it's very good for those moments when you absolutely cannot have eyes on the child. Or children as a babies/ young toddlers would have been in it for much less than an hour a day, in less than 15 minute intervals while we did things like clear up after meals or make dinner. I don't think that's excessive, and some jobs just have to be done.

We've had the most use out of it since having 2 children though - DD2's Moses basket went in there when she was a newborn so DD1 didn't trip over her/ accidentally smother her by giving her a teddy/ etc. Then the baby gym went in there a little later, again so that I could leave the room without worrying about DD1 inadvertently hurting her. And DD1 now sometimes gets in there to build in peace without DD2 knocking things over (in fact, that's basically all it's used for now!)

Depends on baby. For us it would have been pointless. We tried using travel cot at 9/10months when I was painting. (He was walking by 9months, hence trying to contain) He just screamed, then climbed out. Babybjorn travel cot.
He then started climbing out main cot by 12 months. So side hade to come off.
So I bought a baby gate for his bedroom door so He couldn’t go out and downstairs alone. He just climbed over the baby gate

I honestly don’t know how people use cots and baby gates for potentially several years without child just climbing over.

Radiators aren’t that hot to touch, you can adjust water temperature if so.

Steps and stairs just teach to go backwards down. Our house if built into hillside so w have lots of main stairs but also 1-2 steps everywhere. He never fell down them. Just did the small steps himself and waited for us for the big ones