What toys, gadgets or similar made your life as a parent suddenly and miraculously better?

[Thurlow]

We've just bought a cheapo booster seat and a wipe clean table cloth for the dining table. 18mo will now sit happily for over half an hour playing with felt tip pens, with no worry about the state of the table afterwards or falling off the chair as she tries to climb down. It is, quite frankly, revolutionary for the princely sum of about £25 all in. I am in love

When she was little, the walker/jumperoo was an absolute lifesaver, but that one is reasonably obvious. We also had a £5 old-fashioned plastic play arch that seemed a million times better than the modern ones.

What small or odd things completely changed things for a while for you?

The playpen. At last I could pee, turn my back for 5 mins, drink a cup of tea and, in the case of ds1, blink!

A remote controlled car for a crawling baby. I can sit with a coffee while keeping him entertained.....perfect :)

A plastic kitchen with all the bits and bibs. Dd1 4 and dd2 2 will both happily spend ages making me dinner and cups of tea while I sit and relax for a short while

For DD1 it was a very expensive Rolls Royce of slings which she adored, that and her sudden love of Pocoyo.

For DD2 (9 weeks) its been the secondhand reclining chair which she sleeps in for hours

As a parent its been my recent ebay mountain buggy and a pack of rainbow muslins which means I can also see and find the buggers in my bag. Genius.

Rainforest jumparoo. Godsend.
I could have a cup of tea, a sandwich and do a bit of hoovering

Rainforest jumperoo

Baby swing DS couldn't keep his eyes open in it for ages it was the only way we could get him to sleep about 2 months follows by his rocking chair which gets him to sleep every night. DS doesn't sleep well...

I came on to say rainforest jumperoo- I see I am not the first!

Don't know what a jumperoo is thicko mum over here!

Bouncy chair meant I could pootle around/have a shower and ds could see me. Playpen was used once for thirty seconds, then ebayed

Plastic bus, 95p. We can see the bus as it passes the house, reverses, swings in to pick up passengers then pass the house again, DS LOVES watching the 'bussy'. I have to carry him from window to window, running! He imitates the bus's reverse beeping with his own plastic bus, the same colour. Hours of fun.

When ds was tiny a friend lent me a Moby wrap, I loved having ds so close and he slept for hours and hours in it.

white noise sleep sheep

Cloud B Aqua Turtle

......both have done wonders for bedtimes/naps in this house

Glad to hear jumperoo recommended. Just got one yesterday. DS lives it and I can already see it is a positive addition to my life.

A scooter. Finally they walk at the same speed as you! In fact, you have to run to catch up with them (exercise ). Plus it's an excellent motivational tool for teaching road safety, since if they mess around, you have carte blanche to remove it without one iota of guilt. And then when you do have to confiscate it or they get bored of it, it weighs about 3 grams instead of a huge bike which weighs three tons.

You've sold me on the scooter, YoniBotts - I keep wondering what will happen when DC are finally too old for the pushchair but we will have a long walk to the CMs.

Swaddling wrap YYY, that changed my life in minutes, I will buy one for everyone I know because if a baby likes it, they seem to adore it.

And I don't think I could have managed without a playpen either. Didn't actually use it for long but I reckon if you have a crawling baby that doesn't like being held or carried much, they are the only way to get anything done.

Jumperoo for me too, I don't know how I would have done any cleaning, getting dressed etc. without one - godsend! Now he is a bit older, a nightlight has transformed our nights, he now sleeps through and sorts his own covers out if they come off, rather than calling us in to the room to do it.

Dummies.

Sleeping bags, they weren't around for DD had to faff around with sheets and blankets.

Isofix car seat bases, again weren't around for DD.

Baby swing, hot meals eaten with a knife and a fork and no grizzling priceless.

Jumperoo

Little Tykes ride in car

front facing car seat for DD- yeah yeah I know but I'm sure that statistically the risk of her dying in a car crash due to ff vs. rf are more than cancelled out by the quality of my driving now I dont have to listen to her screaming.

but the winner is.........ipad and peppa pig download

oh yeah- stairgates. Dont actually have any stairs, but just put them across the kitchen and bathroom doors to prevent bleach and loo brush eating

Thermal mug for me.
Jumperoo and Littlelife backpack with ds1
Swing chair and Connecta sling for ds2

My iPad - white noise app while DS sleeps, couple of other apps that he likes to look at. Along with the fact that its cost me nothing (technically, since I already had it) and DS has so far hated everything we bought for him in a bid to be able to put him down for a minute so I could scoff a biscuit in peace DS is the complete definition and nothing would convince him that being put down for a short time was ok!

*definition of Velcro!!

Pining that is hilarious my son would love that,so funny