Best Nursery Advice Service - John Lewis or Mamas & Papas?

[Lyrebird]

Hi all,

These two stores have bookable nursery advisors who will walk you through everything you need to buy etc. Does anyone have any experience of either or know which would be better re advice, range?

mamas & papas only sell their own stuff i presume. and i heart jl, so i'd go there every time.

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I'm sure you know this already, but the advisors will also walk you through things that you def DONT need to buy

As long as you approach their recommendations with a pinch of salt and heavy dose of consumer savvy then you will fine.

Alternatively....buy off ebay/get the relatives to who wish to contribute to buy presents and accept all handmedowns very gratefully.

Frankly, any income bracket under 'multi-millionaire' could do with saving money from the nursery and putting it into the Child Trust Fund for the HUGE university fees. Apparently the government will probably remove the fees cap shortly....which means if you have a bright kid that wants to go to a competitive uni you will be looking at £12k per year fees before living expenses...

I agree with Hoxtonchick - JL are soooooo much better and have a wider range of produce.

But I wouldn't bother to be honest - you will end up being told to get loads of crap like bottle warmers, padded hangers, nightlights and 1001 gadgets and gizmos you may never use and are likely to get given anyway.

Buy the minimum, see what kind of baby you have, go from there.

Agree with above - unless you're prepared to go in and say 'here's £2500. Please load me up with tat that I will regret having cluttered around my house 2 weeks after the birth' then you shouldn't be asking anyone in a shop for advice.

Also, don't get suckered in to buying a travel system unless you pushed an actual baby around in one first. See what you can try from friends or secondhand, and save the money for something fabulous when the baby's about 3 or 4 months and you've got a better idea of what will suit you...

(Although should always have new carseat and new cot mattress - but that's well under a £100 for both...)

Hmm, good advice. I'm well aware that there is a lot of crap you can buy I'm a little concerned as I don't have any friends with babies and we don't know the first thing about things like the functions you can get on a pram (I doubt I could even collapse one!), or what to look for in a cot. I was thinking it would be a information gathering exercise tbh. Still not worth it?

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It's always worth window shopping! Just don't take a credit card or a DP (they can be surprising prone to being suckered in by the cute stuff).

Worth seeing if there's a local second-hand pram place nearby? Also I think Surestart sometimes do 2nd hand equipment, and certainly do coffee morning type things for new mothers, so you could go and investigate?

Also just start a thread, describing your expected lifestyle, what sort of car you have, what sort of place you live in (ie flat or house, stairs or not), and ask for some input - should help you narrow things down?

Good luck!

good lord no don't do it!!! they won't offer 'advice' they are trained sales people who will try to get as much money as possible out of you.

mn is here to advise you!

Swap the words "Nursery advisor" for "Sales staff" They don't know any more about what a baby needs than any mum here on MN, but they do know an awful lot about pushing a load of fancy tat that you will probably hardly use. In JL they will also be interested in how you will be feeding, so they can push you bottles and sterilisers and pumps even if you have no plans to FF etc. Their remit is to sell you stuff, not advise you.

As for the lovely decorated nursery with all the nappy holders, cot bumpers and curtains matching - unless you are very well off I would save the decorating for when your baby is old enough to appreciate it (and doesn't necessarily want ickle bickle cutie pie wainbows all over his walls). Put the money where it will be more useful - like a savings account or case of gin.

Seriously, MN is your friend.

here's what I would do -

make a list of what you think you need and
post it on mn asking for advice. See from the responses if you've missed anything off or put on anything unnecessary

The most important purchase is probably your pram so check out the MN buyers guides and do get a sales advisor to help you on that.

I think mothercare have the best selection of prams, though sadly I think their Oxford Circus shop has gone (is that right anyone?) - it had a great buggy showroom in the basement.

It's crucial to have a push/lift/feel of your purchase before you decide to buy.

I have to disagree with the view that these services squeeze money out of you - that was not my experience at all at John Lewis.
I booked an appointment with a nursery advisor who walked me round the KEY things I would need and told me what not to bother with. She spent a particularly long time on the car seat and buggy collapse which was invaluable. You then end up with a 'list' a bit like a wedding list at John Lewis and buy online at your leisure so you can mull over your list and make changes where necessary.
The best bit is when you do buy it is all delivered to your door so no carting stuff home and of course their returns policy is amazing. I returned an unused cellular blanket months after purchasing - and all your details are on their system so there is no scrambling for lost receipts.

Plus it is a really nice part of the experience of looking forward to your first baby. The service is free. There is no hard sell AT ALL and the John Lewis staff are excellent. You will learn loads and feel better prepared which is something that all first time mothers need to feel. Its easy to forget when you have already got children that you used to have no idea of what layers to dress a baby in at night.

M&P are shite, their products are shite and their customer service is worse than shite!

You can guess that I am going to say go to John Lewis can;t you?

I love JL normally but maybe it's my local branch....the baby section staff are not all that clued up IMO. I agree that it would be fun and a lovely first time parent thing to do - but sometimes I feel that all this buying that goes on in a mad frenzy before the birth, then arranging things beautfully etc, is misplaced energy that would be better spent on finding out what it is really like having a baby and preparing for that. I know that is easy to say as I have two DC - and I did a fair amount of it myself with my PFB - but so many people I know (and you also read it here) seemed to think that the baby would arrive, smelling gorgeous and ready to sleep 8 hours straight in their perfectly coordinated nursery, then spend the rest of the day in a lovely chair cooing up at mum while she gets on with the Rest Of Her Life.

Sorry for the rant, not aimed at anyone here .

I don't think JL would give you the hard sell (their sales staff are usually lovely) but I think they can and would introduce you to a whole range of products that you do not need, but would have no way of knowing, as a first time parent, that you don't need them.

It's like the Gina Ford list of "essentials" you need to buy before the birth, like a hospital grade breast pump!

Of course you don't need one - but sometimes it takes an experienced mother to tell you that.

By all means go on a tour (or both!) but I would seriously check what you "need" before you buy anything, it's usually far, far less than most people think.

Can you find any friends at all with babies? Maybe there's a Bumps and Babies group near to you. It's pretty hard to assess a pushchair without a baby (who will soon be twice the size, and then a toddler).

Alternatively walk round your town centre on a weekday morning for a couple of hours, stopping off in the M&S cafe. You will see every pushchair on the market demonstrated!
No point getting a fancy pants Bugaboo if you walk everywhere and need one of those Gracco's which has a shopping basket the size of an Asda trolley!

I did the JL one and thought it was good as a first timer, and the woman who did it with us wasn't pushy and was very down to earth about what was needed.
Basically it's good to get the list of what you need and then go off and hunt for stuff cheaper elsewhere. Also JL set you up with an online gift list automatically so if you know of anyone wanting to buy you presents you can edit the list and then give them the details to buy the more fun stuff like play mat etc...

We did the JL one and agree there was no hard sell BUT we did end up with a lot of crap we didn't need and I had to sell on ebay!

I also agree that men are suckers for such things - my husband especially - so either have stern words or leave DP at home!

Maybe take your Mum? Or maybe not if she's like mine - even if I look at something for longer than a second, I will find it gift wrapped in my porch before you can say "No Mum". Shouldn't complain really !

I was the first of all my friends to have a baby and now I feel super smug that I can pass on my "wisdom" to them so it's not such a bad thing.

I suggest: Go on tour of JL and coo over cute baby gadgets...go home and compile list of crap essentials you want to buy and ask MNetters advice.

Thanks guys - it's been really useful reading the opinions. I'm not really one to spend money on baby things that aren't necessary (read too many previous mn threads so am vigilant!) plus I'm comfortable with the notion of buying things as and if we need them. I'm more worried about getting the big ticket items right so think I'll do a shortlist of what I'd buy and wing it past you all for comments on my choice

Polka, no, families on both sides not in the UK so will definitely be leaning heavily on mn advice I would also agree about leaving DH at home

Have to chime in for JL! They spent ages showing me the travel systems I had decided I wanted to check out and I marked in their catalogue the stuff that was nice as I went round. They were sensible about what was essential and what were really 'extras'. I took home the marked catalogue, price compared everything online (and with local pram shop)and ordered the big stuff from JL - they were cheaper and their ordering (on the phone) and delivery services (free delivery) were exemplary. I do consider myself a pretty savvy shopper - haven't bought much outside essentials and am prepared to do a fair amount of research. JL came out on top for travel system, cot & mattress and some bits and bobs like change mat etc . You can of course always prepare your list from advice on here to take with you. Good luck!

i think ikea are pretty fab, btw sensible stuff at good prices and you can do the spends on dressing it up

dunno about the advice service, but JL are a good shop for getting stuff from.

Their kids clothes are best on the high street by miles. Well chosen toy department. carefully selected equipment - though they don't stock phil and teds because 'it didn't pass out safety test'.

(but beware their kids clothes are on the small size).

Lyrebird - poor you not having family in the UK. Come over to us mumsnetters with that list and we'll sort you out!

I'm just about to have my second and I know immediately what I do/don't need!

For a start, I need a NUK snot-sucker!