Fun pod? Any good? Waste of money?

[treehugga]

My wee tot (18m nearly) is keen to join in cooking, washing up and other worktop-level mess making. I've seen these Fun Pod things. They look like a chair wrapped in cardboard packaging with the top open so that young uns can stand on them safely and join in high level activities (ahem, making banana muffins). At the moment my LO stands - rather wobbily - on a chair and I pray she won't fall off. Should I just wrap said chair in cardboard packaging until it gets soggy, or should I spend £100+ on a registered trademark item made out of wood?

< mischievously >

There was an extremely memorable thread on this very subject back when the 'fun pod' first launched, IIRC.

'Fun Pod' always sounds faintly seedy euphemistic to me, I'm afraid.

I have nothing useful to add, I'm sorry.

I have a nagging suspicion that many people might regard 'em as equally poncetastic, tbh ...

That MN-hating Indy journo would have a field day with this thread. "When not debating the merits of Steiner v Montessori, mumsnetters spend their time arguing about the Fun Pod"

What washersaurus said - we use the ikea steps in our kitchen.

i don't think they are poncey, just dumb

Another vote for IKEA steps. We have 2 - one each otherwise there is scrapping. They use them every day ( ages 3 and 6 but have used them for last year or so ).

My MIL at her house has them on very high stools with no backs and then wanders off. This makes me nervous. But not the IKEA steps, I still watch the 3 yo but am standing next to her anyway so its no biggie really.

If you want to get poncetastic, they come ready to paint so I'm sure you could do something whizzy with them. We didn't bother. Another one of those things we never get round to.

I was on the original too johnnytwohats

I think I may have been on the original thread too - I have definitely linked to those steps before

I have one and DS1 (3) loves being in in it to do baking with his Nana.
I wouldn't have brought one brand new as I think the price is just stupid. But I managed to get one off Gumtree for £35 so snapped it up!

They are brilliant- I don't care what the mockers think. After our wobbly toddler fell off a chair several times onto our (stone) floor, or got his knee into the cross on the chair back and climbed onto the worktop, we decided to just shell out £90 (no we didn't pay 159, that is too much) and get one.

If you have the base low enough a child can't get their knee on to the edge to climb out so I'm fairly sure that it would be safer than a chair, and a low stool is too low for a toddler to reach anything.
We use it at least twice a day, and over its life the cost per use must be minimal, especially if we sell it on.

Also, DS loves it, and is always asking to go in his pod, so its use as a naughty pod wouldn't work well here!

TBH the "naughty pod" thing only really worked over the course of a few days; DS soon cottoned on that pod threats could be robbed of their power if he simply said "yes Mummy, I go in the pod" in cheeky tones.

It was more a case of putting him in there when he really wanted to be climbing somewhere dangerous, therefore he'd be cross at being removed from the top of the tumble drier or wherever. Hey ho, it worked briefly...

I know they need to learn safety by trial and error, but there's no shortage of that in DS's life generally so I am happy not to have it happen while he's got a bowl full of flour to hand

I have never actually seen them for £159, was about £90 most places when I was looking for them. And when I got ours, (late walking) DD wasn't very good at standing up anyway, so balancing her on a chair wouldn't have been a great idea!

Thanks everyone, you have really lifted my spirits as I feared I would never start a proper storm - or even a hiccup - on MN. But now that this has 38 messages including some expressed in midly warm tones, so it has really made my day! Plus, bonus points, I can fantasise that a prowling Indy hack might even hold me up for ridicule. None the wiser on whether to buy said coffin pod, but feel fully justified whatever decision I make, which is just perfect.

I wanna see the pictures, I'm thinking of making a twin version.