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Mobile Baby...Play Mat or Play Pen??

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Mara

Mara

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Oct 30, 2002
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Hi PS Moms...long-winded question--appreciate the help.

We have a small house, which means small space. We also have all hardwood floors with just a few rugs here and there.

J is just about 6mo old and the only thing we have for him on the floor is a playmat--which we also layered with 2 quilts underneath so it's soft when he rolls over. But the playmat is small, prob about 2.5x2.5, so when we have him on it he normally will start rolling around and end up on the hardwood.

I am torn between getting him something like one of those big floor tile foam things OR getting him a playpen. Greg wants a playpen because he wants to 'contain' him so that we have somewhere safe to leave him if we have to go to the bathroom etc when he starts to get more mobile (aka anytime). He is big on 'baby containment'. I thought a big foam floor tile thing would be better since it would create a larger surface space for J to play, roll, whatever and would be easier for him than the wood floors. We'd have to watch him but it would be more fun and more useful longer-term for him.

Because we have limited space here, I kind of want to do an either or thing. The playpen idea sounds great BUT the biggest one I have found online is the Joovy one which is a basic old school large playpen--no toy bars etc. And Moms said while it's bigger than pack n'plays, its still small. Also it's like $80-100 so I am thinking about max utilization and if it's worth it. The big foam floor mat things range from $35-90 (of course I like the Skip Hop one which is the coolest/most modern looking rather than the primary color One Step Ahead one that is $35).

So with all that history written out--what would you do in this situation? I like to keep our house minimal of baby stuff but I would love a safe area for him to play that is cordoned off in our main living room so he's always with us.

One OTHER option we have is to move our chair and ottoman out of a corner of the living room, put it in the office, and make a big space large enough for the play foam mat AND baby gate it around (but we'd have to get a gate that can go in an L basically as it's a corner of the room, do they even make things like this??). And it would be more pricey than just play mat or play pen since we'd have to buy foam mats and the gate. But we could use it longer which to me means better ROI. :D

So my goal is big safe space for J to play on for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. With aesthetic viewing pleasure as a tiny consideration??? Suggestions or what would you do in this situation?? THX!!
 
We tried "containing" Kyle at about 6 months in a baby gate. He hated it. I think we started using it too late, he was already used to being out in the open. So instead we let him roam and baby proofed the open rooms and closed the doors to others. Our house is about 1/2 tile 1/2 carpet. Maybe get the floor tiles or a larger area rug for now, and once he starts crawling just keep pants/baby legs/longer shorts on him to protect his knees from the floor. If you need him contained at certian times (while cooking, etc) a jumber/bouncer/excersaucer would let you know he's safe for a bit.
 
I know you're thinking one or the other, but is there any way you could do both? Maybe do the foam mats in J's bedroom (sorry, can't remember the set up of your house or if J has a room) and then the play pen in the living room? Or maybe find a play pen you could borrow/buy used so you can see how he tolerates it?
 
He has a bouncer but he doesn't like to go in it for a period of time other than to eat right now. If we leave him in it for a while he gets upset.

We also have a pack n'play for him at my Moms house and he is fine within it but again he's not mobile yet. He lays in it, will roll around a little but ultimately gets stuck due to lack of space.

My issue with the larger playpen too is once he is truly mobile, he will prob hate being stuck inside it. So will we end up getting the foam mat thing anyway?

Another option I just thought of was to get a big rug we'd maybe use elsewhere in the house afterwards and put it in a baby gated area instead of having to get the foam mat things which just have one use: baby. But on the flip side thought what if the rug gets all messed up from barf and whatever else, and we end up getting rid of it later anyway. So it'd have to be a cheap yet thick rug. Hmm.

Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this (overthinking something? me? never!) but since moving we have been really cautious about trying to get too much crap stuffed into this place as it feels cluttered really easily. And we don't have much storage. And we only plan to have one kid...so it's not like anything we use/buy can be used again though we could give it to someone or sell it.
 
If it were me I'd pass on the play pen (for the reason's you've noted) and go with an inexpensive, large area rug (like a 7 x 9 or 8 x 10). Most are at least an inch thick, which should provide plenty of cushion and friction when J is crawling. Then at least you know your child's needs are being met while still appealing to your personal aesthetic.
 
Get the mats, hands down.

If he's as active as O, and it sounds like he is, he won't last long in the play pen. I do understand the need for containment, but we just pop him in his crib or PNP for short periods of time.

The mats are GREAT. Gives them rolling around room, plus easy to clean, soft on their knees, etc. He knows it's "his" play space too.

We have ours set up upstairs in a room that I can close all of the doors. I put the mats in a corner with all of his toys and let him go to town. I can relax, watch tv, use the computer OR play with him and he entertains himself.

The downside is that yes, it's baby gear and it works best to just leave them out. I'd go with the Skip Hop ones personally. We didn't b/c a friend gave me a package she didn't use but aesthetically I wish we'd done SH. I have to look at the mats ALL THE TIME.

The other thing to remember is that it's temporary. You'll get your house back eventually. ;))
 
Mara, play mat. If containment is really an issue, check craigslist for a used Superyard XT. People don't really use them as much as they think they will, so they usually are in great condition and sell for $25 or so. Then you can contain the play area.

I bought a gym mat and we love it. We use it for soft landings on our indoor slide. We lay on it for story time and do tumbles on it.
 
A doorway jumper might be better containment than the bouncer at his age. They don't take up much space and you can put it away when not in use. I had a really simple one, but this looks like it has more features http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.js ... Id=3393725
 
I'm thinking the same thing. I think I'm going to get a play mat sometime soon, because it will last her for longer than a playpen. We have one carpeted playroom on the 3rd floor, but that's not so convenient for having K play while we cook and keep an eye on her. We also have a pack 'n play, but are hardly using it at this point. I'm thinking we'll get a play mat because she'll still be able to sit on it and play with stuff when she's older too. We don't really want area rugs because DH has bad dust allergies, which is why most of the house is hardwood floors. I think we'll try to put one barrier at the bottom of the stairs and another between family room and kitchen to corral her. Either that or get one of the play yard kind of things.
This is the one I'm eyeing:
http://www.amazon.com/Multi-Purpose-Rev ... B000V9IB0G
 
neither. You have a dog and if she sheds the mat is going to make you crazy. I looked into getting one way back when and decided (with lots of negative reviews from PS moms) to get a larger area rug. That way our family room did not look like kid central 24/7. We didn't have a play pen, instead I could get baby gates. Worked great for us.
 
Our last house was all hardwood. We just had a large area rug in our living room for T to play on. We have a jumper much like the one Mustang posted on our main floor that is good to keep K contained (because he can already make it across a room in very little time I am already having to contain him when I'm taking T to the bathroom ect) and also have the jumperoo in the basement. Both are great for keeping him occupied and out of trouble while I'm cooking, ect.
 
We have a tiny condo with zero space. What we've used are gates to close off access to the hall way, kitchen, and dining room. She crawls and cruises around the living room. We have carpet though so I would ditto Tacori's suggestion of an area rug.
 
I do have a dog that sheds and the play mats haven't been a problem.

For us at least, the room has a rug but it's not quite big enough to cover the hardwood area that he plays in.

If you have a huge space that can be covered with a rug, aesthetically that's a better option, but it wasn't an option for us.
 
I live in a condo so I can easily relate to the lack of space issue!! I was one of the moms that Tacori mentioned who had the Skip Hop playmat. It was adorable and definitely served a purpose but I went absolutely insane with it because it was a lint, dust, hair magnet! It was impossible to keep clean and it drove me nuts. Also, my genius daughter was able to take it apart and use the pieces as teething toys so it started to look really bad with all the teeth marks all over it!! I agree with gates and just a big rug or a gym mat like TGal has.
 
thanks ladies.

we already have a doorway jumper, J likes it for about 15 min. he likes everything for a max of 20-30 min and that's about it. i wish that he had something he was really into.

i'm thinking a big area rug would be best but on the flip side i like that you can use the mats for the kid for years, aka TG's 'we tumble on it' now.. kind of thing. but the rug would be able to be used after the fact and it isn't kiddy.

also yep we have a dog but she is not a real shedder actually, there isn't too much hair. i was not totally sold on the mats though because i read they are kind of thin and can separate and then you end up having to reconnect them all the time anyway.

i'll check out the superyard on craigslist as well, and see if i can get a cheapo rather than buying new.

our other prob is that our house is small so we don't have a 'room' where we can contain all the baby stuff, i totally wish we did. that's why we try to keep it minimal.

ETA while taking a while to compose this i see more responses came in...curly that is what i also read on a few of the mats that some of the kids could CHEW through it. and i thought jeez i don't want to be worrying my kid is going to chew off a piece and eat it!
 
I would get the foam play mats and then put him in his crib when I needed to do something. ETA actually an area rug is a MUCH better idea. The kiddo will just pull those mats apart and it is one more thing to deal with.

FWIW we used the pack and play for this purpose, but rarely. I found it easier to cart the little monkey with me to the bathroom/kitchen etc than to listen to him wail in the play pen. We bought a few portable baby gates and found startegic places to put them up to contain him in the area I was working in -- laundry room, kitchen. Other rooms I just shut the doors. So he just tagged along with me whatever I was doing and amused himself playing in ther cabinets etc.

Also, you just need to get used to the notion of sharing space with the kiddo. We manage by having a large storage unit in the family room and some other storage things too and all the toys fit in those when he is in bed and so there are NO toys out and about when it is adult time! Unless we do not clean up. I hate hate hate seeing toys strewn all over, so some creative organizing now and creative storage will save you a big headache later on. I think creating a play area for him with storage is a good idea.

Oh, and another thing. I hope you dont think he will be happy to play by himself in the contained area :cheeky: Our son plays independently GREAT but he still wants us in the room with him, preferably watching him play :rolleyes: If we leave the room, he wants to come too! They are like dogs that way, or at least like our dog. I bet Portia is not all that happy if you crate her in the other room while you three play in the lviing room. 8)
 
lol dreamer...did you read my mind??? i was hoping he'd LOVE being contained while we watched TV. in reality, not so much but a girl can dream. and nope, P wants to be WHEREVER we are and we don't even need her crate anymore since she is so well behaved. she's a good model for J to aspire to. :Up_to_something:

funny thing too is at my moms house he will just chill in his pack n play, but at home he is not that mellow --i don't know what it is. and our house at home is way more quiet than at my mom's house.

i think i'll look on overstock for a big rug. we have an 8x10 in the office i could reappropriate, but it's a beautiful wool pottery barn rug that would probably not fare well with lots of baby barf on it. we can try it solo first and then get the XT gate if we need to cordon him off. :naughty:
 
Mara, I was going to suggest a larger, soft area rug as well and just pop him in the PNP or crib for short amounts of time when you need him contained. I never had a playpen with A and don't plan to get one with E b/c I don't really see a big difference between them and the PNP.
 
Babies and dogs are pretty similar in a lot of ways! ha! We don't crate our dog much anymore, only when we are gone all day because I still worry that he might hurt himself getting into something.

Like FLSteph we did not see any difference between a playpen and a P&P so we used our P&P. But rarely, so rarely! And I was a SAHM for 10 months!

I do think it helps if you can make the whole environment baby friendly. No proofer per se, but just a little friendlier so you don't have to worry so much when he is out and about in the room. Put away the real breakables and you should be fine!
 
Though they are large, exerscausers (sp?) are great for entertaining a baby. DD would happily play for 30-45 mins. at a time in her's. I am lucky b/c my daughter will (and always has) played independently some of the time.

ETA: I am sure you could get a cheapie on CL. Clorox it and wash the seat, good as new.
 
i was JUST getting ready to post this EXACT question. love this forum! our living room is all hardwood with 2 area rugs that don't offer enough space for him to play on, so we definitely need to come up with a solution. keep us updated on what you end up doing mara.

after reading everything here and looking at reviews on amazon...i think i'm leaning heavily towards an area rug.
 
Tacori E-ring said:
Though they are large, exerscausers (sp?) are great for entertaining a baby. DD would happily play for 30-45 mins. at a time in her's. I am lucky b/c my daughter will (and always has) played independently some of the time.

ETA: I am sure you could get a cheapie on CL. Clorox it and wash the seat, good as new.
Click to expand...

Hunter liked his as well, though not as much as just trying to crawl around on the floor!
 
As great as the foam mats are when they are first becoming mobile, as soon as they're REALLY mobile, they don't stay on them no matter how big they are, and they pull them apart and chew on them. Not the worst thing in the world and can be tons of fun for them, but doesn't work to keep them off hard floors. So I wouldn't get one for that purpose alone.

I love the pack and play, but I've been putting Jacks in it since he was tiny for small amounts of time, so he's never hated it. He doesn't enjoy being in there, even though it's filled with toys, but he'll tolerate it for up to 30 minutes at a time (I only do that when I'm exercising in the morning), otherwise he's in it for a few minutes while I carry in groceries, use the bathroom, etc.
 
Large, plush area rug.

Baby containment is one of those things that works well in theory, but I cannot imagine George being okay with playing in a play pen for long. He wants to be where all of the action is! What works much better for us is having relatively baby-proofed rooms, with non-baby-proofed areas sectioned off with baby gates. He also just comes in the bathroom with us (and I hear that this makes for easier toilet-training, for what it's worth, because he has going in the toilet modeled for him for a long time before he's expected to do it himself), but we can always plop him in the crib if we need to contain him.

I'd personally go with the rug over a play mat, as it's easier to make the room look non-babyfied if you have company coming over or something, plus the whole dog hair issue mentioned above. George hasn't really done much damage to any of the rugs in the house, although we keep eating confined to the kitchen and dining room. Daycare has rugs with a bunch of kids and it doesn't seem to be a problem either. Again, they have designated eating areas... I think that is key to keeping rugs and furniture relatively clean.
 
Claire can't even crawl yet, but I can't contain her on our area rugs! I always put her down comfortably on the rug, and then she leans and turns until suddenly she's on the hardwood. She's not on her knees, though, so I don't have to worry about her comfort.

We did have her in a PNP by the kitchen for a little while, but she would fuss when we tried to put her in it. Now we just put her in the same spot on the floor with a few toys (and then she somehow manages to grab the draft blocker or the watering can that I thought were out of her reach!).

We're planning to block access to the kitchen and to the top of the stairs with a baby gate. Even if we could baby-proof all the dangerous stuff in the kitchen, it would just take one slip-up for us to leave the basement door (accessible through the kitchen) open, and then she could fall down stairs that are open in the back onto the concrete floor. :errrr: So it will just give me peace of mind to know that she can't get into the kitchen or fall down the stairs from upstairs. Otherwise, we'll leave bathroom doors closed, and I've already gotten some outlet covers.
 
thanks ladies. i eventually will prob get the PNP from my Mom if i get her a mini crib so we might have that at some point--but i've decided to look for an area rug, prob something like 5x8 big thick rag rug so it's soft enough but still washable and the 'pattern' of the rag will hide unable to get out stains. i am going to try to get a blue so that he can have it as a rug in his room when he is older too. and then we'll see about the superyard on CL once he's more mobile.

our house also is small enough to where he could be in the corner of the room with us and not far from us at all, so he might tolerate it reasonably well but guess we'll find out!

the place would already be more proofed if P was a nosy dog or a dog that explored etc but she has always been extremely good about not bothering to get into anything, aka i can leave her food on the floor in the pantry open and she will not go in there and eat it! likewise for anything that falls on the floor or any glass items etc. so on one hand it's been easy for us to have a dog and nice things, but on the flip side, the house is not remotely baby proofed yet. though G just did start putting on cabinet locks in the last week so we can slowly do things over time.

thanks ladies! i'll report back.
 
after talking over our options with hubby -- we decided to buy a tumbling mat. we figured its vinyl so should clean easy, it's nice and cushiony and folds away easily (we hope). just ordered one off amazon (the stars one). we'll see how it work outs.

saw the softspot thing by wozzy. looks intriguing but the price for the size was a little offputting. anyone have any experience with that? i was tempted to get it, but wondering how long a 4x4 circle would keep A happy. he's already over 2 feet long!
 
hey experienced Moms...

could i get away with a rug that is 4x6 for J to play on in our main space, or is that too small?

i'm looking at the recycled denim rag rug on Land of Nod...super cute. not sure how soft it is but on the flip side i don't want it to be TOO soft. plus it's dark so can hide stains and prob could be washed if it's all denim (even though it says prof clean).

http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=9761&f=1794

don't really want to pay for the 6x9 sizing. plus 4x6 would prob work better in his room in the future.

also looked for a superyard XT on CL and none to be had right now but we might just start with the rug.

ETA i am also thinking of something like a chenille rug--it would be softer. hmmm.

i really want a plush shag rug but figure J burying his face in there would be not so good.
 
Maybe this makes me sounds like a mean mom, but I think I would just let him play on the hard wood unless you can get a really big rug, like 8x20 or bigger. My reasoning is that even pre crawling, once he gets a little stronger, we will wiggle and pump his legs and basically still move around! A 4x6 is basically a large towel 8) and I feel like it is almost pointless. That rug also look thinner and I see it getting all bunched up under him and he wiggles and rolls and kicks and pulls himself around with his hands.

I honestly don't think he can do too much damage to his head until he starts walking, and by then a little area rug won't help anyways because he will be a tasmanian devil of activity. Or, wait, maybe that is just my kid.

So go big or go home! That is my vote.

But you know your kids temperament. Maybe he will enjoy just sitting in one place and playing in which case a small rug will work, maybe he will be a wild man flailing and grabbing and always moving, in which case a small rug is a waste. It is pretty obvious pretty early which one you have on your hands.

By the way, your dog is ridiculously well behaved! My dog is very well trained and a great dog, but you cannot leave food around or it is eaten! No way jose! Plus he licks the baby like crazy and makes me mental, not to mention if we leave a poopy diaper in his reach :knockout:
 
lol Dreamer, you are totally describing what i imagine he will be like when you say Tasmanian Devil. maybe i am trying to be too structured--maybe i'll just wait til he is actually crawling before i do anything and feel him out. there's always knee pads. :tongue:

and unfortunately i think our living room is something like 10x20 so getting a rug that size wouldn't work. our house and rooms are pretty compact, think california ranch bungalow kind of thing which is why i almost feel like it could be a moot point. the kid can travel the house in all of 2 min if he was really motivated.

i appreciate the reality check because i don't want to get something that i think is ok and/or will work then realize it was wasted $$.

so for moms with hardwood, do you just use like an all natural wood cleaning product? that is my other thing, i don't want him crawling all over it if it has like oil soap or something on the wood then eating his hands. i'll have to put something out for the maids to use.

and re: Portia, she knows her food is there, but prob not that she could get her snout in there and gorge freely. or maybe she's just too lazy. and she stays away from the babe so far because he's a batter and flailer with those arms and legs. she prefers the small corners of the room lately. but i know eventually they'll be buddies.
 
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