Is investing in an expensive playmat worth it in your opinion?

[FlyingSoap]

Trying to decide if it is worth the splurge. We haven’t got a playroom, but hoping to make a play space in our living area. I have seen Totter and Tumble highly recommended and some similar brands. Are they worth the price or could we go for a cheaper alternative?

Not in my opinion no as that baby stage is so short lived but if it makes you feel better maybe get one second hand off Facebook.

I've just googled them and they're....rugs? What makes them different from a nice rug?

No buy a cheap one with some squeaky things on it from argos. Your kid will probably puke on it a lot.

Obviously it depends on your budget (and how house proud you are), but generally, no. They're only useful for a very short time.

Having had to Google that type of playmat..

If you have hard floors... a rug Ayman like that might be useful.

But on carpet... well a baby will only use a playmat for a few months before they roll off it!

I’d say no. We had a mat with the arches for about 6 months. Then moved on to a flat play mat…now at 9 months he won’t stay on it anyway so he just goes on the carpet.

Very little baby equipment is worth spending lots on IMO!

No they're like thick yoga mat material

Love love love mine

No.
The cat disagree... He enjoyed it.

I gave hard floors and used those cheap foam squares that looked like a jigsaw

Nope. Looks pretty, but before you know it is something they’ll just be escaping from all the time.

I was going to get one and settled with a cheap one. That lasted about a month or two until my youngest was fully able to sit without falling over.as PP says that window is so short ans then they change! Don’t buy one. Use the money and treat yourself or go out on a date with your partner

If you have hard floors i would 100% get one if you can afford it. I sit on mine with my children all the time. They were amazing when baby was learning to crawl as well.

Love our totter and tumble. Still in use years after the baby stage - we have hard floors in our main living space and sit on it all the time for play. It's basically a wipe able rug, we'll have it for years more.

I have a totter and tumble one down on a hard floor and would highly recommend. Little one is almost 3 and still use it everyday to sit and play with toys on.

I love our Totter and Tumble - kids play on it still (4&3) and I use it for Pilates at home!

Youd be better off with Eva tiles, I would buy the bigger ones in a neutral colour to match your decor rather than the primary colour ones, you can even get them with wood effect tops now. They will be useful for the sitting stage right up to attempting cartwheels and headstand stage.

If I had a tot again and ai wanted to splurge on something I would save for the Pikler style climbing equipment, I can definitely see longevity in that long beyond the toddler years. Rolling cars down the ramps etc.

If you have a garden, one which is sufficiently robust to use outdoors can be very useful. We used ours for years - floor picnics, play dens, outdoor picnics and play - it had many uses. I don't think ours was especially expensive though.

We have a T&T, it's been worth every single penny and our eldest is now 4, it's still in amazing condition and used every day. Worth their weight in gold

As a slightly different answer, we have wooden floors and have a Totter and Tumble mat in the kitchen nook that's used as a play and toy storage area (still- mine are 5 and 8!) They use it daily to sit on and play - things like Brio, magnatiles, lego building etc. i also use it for yoga. I bought it when my oldest was a baby so from that perspective it's been a decent, low cost-per-use item for us and the more sophisticated colour way also still works well - it also still looks as new.
If you want something more permanent in a playroom/area on hard floors then I'd definitely recommend this sort of thing

I've seen a totter and tumble one at a play café place. They are quite nice and soft for crawling/toddling babies, but not worth it for a home in my opinion, since as others say, the phase where they need a playmat is pretty short.

I guess it might partly depend on whether you really like the aesthetic, but personally I prefer more brightly coloured stuff anyway than tasteful shades of grey and William Morris prints, especially for young children.

We have hard floors and we got a rug a bit like this one for the playroom when DS1 was at that stage. They have one of those rugs with a map of a pretend city on it now, and DS2 has the old rug in his bedroom.

Yes. We got the Love every playmat and it lasted for over 3 years.
It turns into a tent and my toddler poved playing in it it has been changed back into a playmat only as we have a baby and again DS2 loves it. It is simple and the colours used are not suoer over the top. There are bright colours but used in a nice tasteful way. Do it suits our living room. As we have only 1 room also.
Don't regret it. Was our biggest splirge along with the travel system.

Most posters here don’t seem to know what you’re talking about.

I was given one. It’s out all the time.

Does the job - we don’t have a playroom so it signifies their ‘play area’ quite well.

I can’t remember if ours is totter and tumble or munchkin and bear, but I love it. It’s four years old now and still looks great. We have hard floors and it’s a lifesaver (also great at keeping the heat in our Edwardian house!). We play on it, exercise on it, have picnics on it. Hands down probably the best investment we made. Easily cleaned, daily use. Only downside it’s a bit rubbish for Lego as too soft, but easily rolled up. I didn’t want our sitting room to look like a play room, I wanted it to be functional and also look good when the toys are packed away. Can’t see us getting rid of it for quite a few years (it’s great for yoga as it’s so big!), and also has good resale value.

I don't think so. Once they can roll, bum shuffle or crawl they don't use them much in my experience (I feel like a sucker for buying a nice new fisher price one with lots of features for something like £60 that baby still got bored of before he was 1 really)

I used a thin single duvet as a play mat on my wooden floor. It wasn’t thick enough to get tangled in (and the baby was never alone on it), and I could change/wash the cover easily.