am i the only one who never spent a penny on a "nursery" for my kids?

[fillyjonk]

This oogling of mothercare cabinets and agonising over winnie the pooh vs whatever is utterly, utterly lost on me.

surely the money could be better spent on a holiday or a nice pair of shoes or something?

newborns don't care and odds are they'll end up with you anyway for a bit.

Why not save the money and paint when they are toddlers and give a crap?

i thank you

i did really well,no fancy decorating,moses basket,cot,bouncy chair,baby walker,baby gym all from freecycle.lots of clothes from local charity shops,and then i fell in love with a stupid changing bag from crabtree and evelyn.
the changing matt is so big that you can't get anything else in there!and it's got stupid bunnies and things all over it.i hate it now but daren't say anything cause i kicked up such a fuss to have it

hmmm they must have passed me by

bumperlicious, I don't think blackouts are neccessary - I would have thought that yuo are just creating a situation where the baby can't sleep unless in darkness. I don't know for sure though as I've never used them

We had done nothing before dd1 was born as she was early so while she was n hospital we painted the room green at teh bottom and blue sky on the top with a yellow sun in the corner, paintwork was red, we borrow my old cot which we painted red, and borrowed and old chest of drawers that DH did up into a changing table using MDF - it was fab tree trunk sides and poppies painted all over (she si called Poppy) The changing table was great as we kept all the stuff there, with nappies, wipes, nappy disposal thing (I know others hated theres, we loved ours, but it was 2nd hand) Blackout blinds painted sky coloured too.

In all we spent about £40 on paint, £10 on MDF and £10 on blinds)

DD2 slept in the same room and DD! moved at 2 to her own room and we bought a bed I made curtains, lampshade and had matching duvets. We painted the walls 4" wide candy pink stripes. At 8 the walls and bed havn't changed, just new curtains, lampshade. I have promised her a new room at 10 which will be it!!

The 'nursery' is now purple and white daisy's painted on it (DD2 is called Daisy) and we did finally buy a wardrobe and bed for her.

flibberty - no offence, but does your friend suffer from OCD?

bumper, many many things sold to parents are completely unnecessary. Black out blinds is one. A changing table is another. A special bin to put nappies in is another etc etc on and on but some people just like spending money. They would probably be better off spending more time in church but shopping and spending seems to be the new UK religion.

nursery?

ha ha ha

at the time I was grateful to be able to afford a laundry basket. Children are now mortified by early pictures of themselves in it, but they didnt mind at the time lol

My parents take delight in telling me how we all lived in a caravan when I was born, and they manged to jam a 50 pence piece wrapped in sellotape into the leccy meter so as they couldn't afford electricity, and for my mum's birthday my grandparents bought her a pair of clarkes shoe for me when I was about 3 (actually that last one is quite ) But I don't remember any of it! Makes you appreciate what you have got though.

I wish I just didn't get so seduced by all these magazines with lovely houses in them. Part of me would love a magazine supplement house, and part of me loves that my flat has mismatched beg borrowed and stolen furniture (though that is a smaller part)! Envy is a terrible vice.

live in one-bed council flat so wasn't likely! Now dd is 2 she sleeps in the bedroom and I have to sleep in living room as not enough space for everything if my bed's in there too.

live in one-bed council flat so wasn't likely! Now dd is 2 she sleeps in the bedroom and I have to sleep in living room as not enough space for everything if my bed's in there too.

bumper we chose blackout blinds but they are NOT necessary at all. All our stuff was give or lent, we painted it all to look 'new' I loved that my girls slept in MY crib and it is still going strong somewhere Back in my parents attic I think They also slept in my old big pram during the day, I used it around the house and village where we lived, They could go from livining room to garden to village shopw ithout bein woken up, it was fab

Ha ha, I don't think she has ocd but is always very 'organised' and never a hair out of place. She was once moaning at a playgroup that DD is so demanding that she wants attention, you know, when you have got things to do...
We all looked at each other thinking 'but our things to do ARE our kids'. of course you will all have guessed that she only has the one! and me with 2 (16m gap) running around so frazzled all the time has apparently put her off having another!!

I know a lady that has a massive house, 4 young kids all have their own huge rooms (with double bed each from outgrowing a cot!!) and a couple of years ago she had a professional company come in and paid £1000 per room to have them 'themed'. A theme for us is my two boys in matching Primark pyjamas!

I like having a changing table. It was very cheap and I've wedged it between bookshelves on the landing, so all his clothes/nappies and general stuff go underneath it. He is in with us for the forseeable future though. I like it that way.

Now, as for knitted things, there also lies my weakness. Luckily, my neighbours have an older baby with a knitting Grandma and a minimalist Dad who passes everything on to us the second he grows out of it.

You pay such a premium for a knitted cardi these days...

here

we get given stuff like this

The ability not to be envious is a very useful skill. Sometimes the cheaper stuff is better anyway - light easy to fold double buggies rather than huge ridiculous big push chair things.

I always changed them on the floor and then no chance they would fall off.

I spend sooo much money on DS's nursery and at 14 months he is still in with me. He slept about 2 hours in his crib before coming in with me, has never slept in there and has now outgrown the blue flowered wallpaper and white lace curtains with blue ribbons tiebacks! I won't do one again, instead I will wait until they are actually going to use the room!

That is a worry, true, I don't dare move for a second with him on it. Changing will be done on the floor soon I think.

I think it's good for people to be on the floor more too physically. We need to sit and squat more

Us too MrsCarrot. I love the knitted things and they are so much more cute than the mini-adult stuff some babies are put in. Once DS was in an all-in-one cable knitted arran pram suit thingy knitted by my grandma and someone asked us if we had bought it from Armani I thought that was pushing it a bit, seeing as I was dressed head to toe in H&M!

We used the crib to keep DS safe/happy whilst using the bathroom too.

When DS is big enough for the matching shorts, socks and cardigan knitted by my great auntie Joan, I will be parading him through our local high street.

LOL at Armani!

That's the thing isn't it, if it's not knitted by Grandma, it costs a damn fortune!

Off to do some squatting now

I've decided I have become an invered snob about kitting out DS's bedroom. Painted cream with left over carpet (beige) from stairs run on into it. Cot donated by friend, changing table bought in charity shop by my mum for £10, chest of drawers nice old wooden ones painted distressed cream given as present by my sister and rotary indoor clothes hanger as a wardrobe . Buggy/pushchair was an absolute bargain on ebay for £10 and like new.

Did spring for an expensive isofix car seat though - seemed a better use of limited resources.

If you don't have the limited resources bit then I suppose some people would enjoy ktting out a nusery for themselves [doubtful emoticon]

not sure my knees are up to kneeling on the floor Xenia. Long term knee problems - but maybe I wouldn't have had them if I had kneeled more...

Mrscarrot, you pay a premium for handkitted stuff cos any decent yarn costs a fortune - I won't knit in acrylic stuff for my boys. So if you get given handknit stuff then I'd run round with a big big tin of chocs or something for that lady as she must be going to a lot of expense for you!
I only knit stuff for them cos I really enjoy knitting, if I thought about how much each sweater costs then I'd just stab myself with my needles and give up.
But oh their heirloom baby shawls that my mother did are to die for - perhaps thats why we don't need a co-ordinated 'nursery', cos I have lovely things like that in their room?

I could always do the lotus position, not through any particular special exercise or being fit, just bendy legs. So sitting on the floor Japanese style etc is quite easy.

Obviously if you have the money and want to spend it then do up a nursery - people have huge fun with it but realise it's for you and not the child and they'll outgrow it anyway and one day want to pain their room jet black or whatever.... never mind the soft porn posters all over my son's room.

I paid a fiver for some winnie the pooh stickarounds, to brighten up the alcove in our bedroom where DD's cot was! We used the rest of them to decorate her room when she finally moved out! Bargain!