Play yard/gate

DH and I have differing view points on this... just wondering what my fav LIF ladies do...

Do you use a playyard for you DC? NOt a playpen/packnplay.. but like one of those expandable playyards made out of the plastic stuff that baby gates are made out of?

Why? When? At what age and for how long?

or

Why not?

I think we should just baby proof DD's playroom as much as possible.. it is also our den. then let her roam free and put a gate at the door.. DH thinks we need a playyard.. even though the room only has one exit/entrance and isp retty small

Re: Play yard/gate

We will eventually use one on our middle level (we have a split). That is where the kitchen, LR, and DR are. There are stairs going up and down, and two entrances to the kitchen. I want DD on the same floor as me while I'm making dinner, but there are too many hazards, so this is why we will use one. I actually don't love them though.

Re: Play yard/gate

we use one in our living room. her room and most of the other rooms are babyproofed. i dont think i would use it in a playroom, i would just proof the whole room. our living room is on the larger size so we use it to keep her and her toys contained. it's this the
Little Playzone


we also have the extension kit so its like double the size. DD is 15m and she likes it. it has toys built into the wall on one panel so that's a plus. she can sometimes play in there for up to an hour while i get things done. its a lifesaver not having her crawling and getting into everything. and its short enough that she can stand up and see us and the TV and everything in the room if she wants too.

as part of our morning routine she's in there for about 30-60 minutes and is usually pretty good. i can get a lot done thanks to the play yard. i dont know how long it will last, she just started walking and she has been cruising the gaits for some time now. in the afternoon sometimes i have to put on an episode of gabba before she will start playing by herself in there. and other times me or Dh will go in with her and start playing and then she's ok. we generally rely on it in the morning and in the evening when i am making dinner. we usually go out during the day though so i feel like if i limit the amount of times i put her in, she's usually pretty cool about it. so i find it extremely helpful.

Message edited 8/30/2012 9:55:00 PM.

Re: Play yard/gate

We have one and love it. I'm going to pick up the extension kit this weekend. We have the superyard and one of those foam mats on the floor. It takes up most of the open floor space in our living room.

Honestly I can't even begin to think about how we would baby proof our house enough to truly make it safe. We have to leave the basement door open for kitty - that's not negotiable. We have no carpeting - all hardwood. Our furniture may as well be made of knives.

MIL is here with her when we both are working, and she can't run after her all day.

So we figured it was much safer to use this for now and we'll deal with baby proofing the rest of the house or figuring something else out, when necessary.

For now it works!

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Ooops, diregard the second NON post

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We used this (still do and my DD is 20 months.) She has a playroom but we keep this in our living room. I think it has really helped her learn to play independently. I have several friends with kids her age and they do not play half as independently and we all think this is why. She loves her little space with all her toys. We have the extension and when she was younger we would sit and play in there with her. Now we have all of her little people playsets in there and she sits so nicely playing with them. We don't always have her in there and our house is babyproofed but it is nice option to have. It is great to be able to put her in there and run to the bathroom or make her lunch without having to worry where she is.

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Play yard/gate

OK ladies.. thanks! Hubby wins!! I was trying to contain her in only the play room and baby proof that but perhaps it would make life easier to set the play yard up in the living room and keep some toys in there too.. she doesnt really like to stay in the pack n play so maybe that gets folded up and the play yard in its place just as another central "play station". I guess I need to get some more foam mats.

Speaking of which DD never really cared to hang out in the play pen... we pretty much just used it as a bassinet for her first 3 months and ever since its sort of just been a dumping ground for extra toys!

Re: Play yard/gate

We have a Super Yard, but only use it around our Christmas tree. We have a dedicated playroom that we baby-proofed a bit & then gated off so that he could play freely in there. To baby-proof it we have a door lock on the entrance to the laundry room, outlet & blind cord covers and we used to have 2 gates when he was younger - 1 into the kitchen & 1 into the den (it's a 6' wide entrance). As ds got older we removed both gates, but they'll be going back up for ds #2 in a few months.

We're not big baby proofers in our house...I only did the basics/bare minimum because I felt that no where outside our house was going to be b-p'd & I wanted him to get used to being in regular environments. That being said, we do have a few of the more dangerous things done (outlet/blind cord covers, door locks, locks on the cleaning supply & medicine cabinets & a gate around our 52" TV (the TV is big & the stand has glass shelves), but that's pretty much it.