Play Cafes...

Are they a great place for mums to hang out having a coffee and a goss whilst their little one plays safely in a haven of fun? OR are they germ infested, overpriced, cramped rooms of chaos? There's no denying that these places are ideal for letting your little one run riot and have fun whilst you sit down for ten minutes. But, you do find they get full pretty quickly and if like me, you find yourself accidentally stepping on a child or a mum whilst trying to manoeuvre out of the four foot by three foot ball pool, your asking yourself why you came!! You also get those mums who become completely engrossed in their convo's that their missing their Damien esque kids shoving/hitting/grabbing the nicely behaved ones!! (oops sorry Damien didn't mean to lock you in the Wendy house, ps don't shove my daughter again mwah ha ha) Some of these places also have toys to play with but when my daughter came toddling towards me the other day with a mouldy doll, in a mouldy buggy, out came the hand sanitiser, the wet wipes and the obligatory 'no darlin dirty, eugh eugh'. I do these places are great fun but it wouldn't hurt to be a bit cleaner or have a smaller limit on how many kids could play? ...

Has it really been three months ?! Oops!!

Due to an unexpected housemove, the blogging had to be put aside for a wee while. But!!! after a short absence I'm back!!! (for those who enjoy or even read my blog :))!! Anyhoo, my daughter is a few months older and I have still been enjoying the joys of transportation with a toddler in tow. Looking forward to sharing my experiences again :)

What a week .....

Well it's been over a week since I blogged
And I'm sorry to those who actually read this lol :) in 24 hours I found out my house was going to be reposessed due to the landlord not paying his mortgage, we had a trip booked to Butlins which we still went on and on the way there the brakes went! Luckily there was a garage nearby and two hours later we were back on the road! Got to Butlins and whilst the lovely helpful Butlins staff are faxing through a tenancy application to estate agents for a house we saw that morning, babba decides to throw up everywhere and the bright red 'sun burn' marks she has on her makes us rush to the hospital ASAP. Babbas ok thank
God but what a day!! So, I will
Be back to blogging shortly on my experience at Butlins.....

The Doc's.....

Now, I have a burning question (and would also like to provisionally apologise in case this blog offends anyone)
 
Why is it doctors surgery receptionists are so rude? Now, I do know one lovely one so she is clearly an exception but the others I have dealt with, jeez!  Manners are free you know !!
 
Pre-child, I didn’t frequent the doctors very often. In fact I didn’t want to waste their time and would much rather suffer than go through the rig moral of arranging time off from work and making it up etc.  Plus us women just get on with it as oppose to the whole man-flu thing.
 
However, since my little ray of sunshine came into life and mixes with other little rays of sunshine’s at nursery and swimming I have been to the doctors more times in the last 12 months then the past 30 years and nope im not exaggerating.
 
At first you go through the ‘paranoid’ mum stage.   ‘is that a rash?’ ‘Is the glass test where you can see the rash through a glass or cant see a rash through the glass’ and ‘right im gonna Google it and see what comes up…….’ then scare yourself silly with the 1098,000 possible illnesses they may have!!
 
I especially remember the time babbas temperature rose to a whole 36.2 degrees when she was three months old and I spent all night ringing the NHS helpline and taking her temp every half an hour. 
 
Anyway, as a new mum doctors all know we can be a bit paranoid and neurotic and why not I say, when it comes to your child health is the most important thing and I still swear that mothers instinct over rules anything.  Everytime I have contacted the surgery, I’m asked stupid questions, I can’t ever pre-book appointments, I’m told if im that worried to go to the Walk in centre etc. (if it was that worrying of course I would do that silly woman!)
 
So when there had been an outbreak of the ol’ chicken pox and my little un suddenly had a couple of angry red spots sprout up, I thought ‘uh hah! She has the pox’ (my mum did have to ask me not to tell everyone that my baby had the pox as apparently it is different than chicken pox in that it is a Victorian std of some sort! Oops!) Excellent I thought, she seemed fine in herself and better for her to get it now then when she is older.  As you all know nursery/schools wont take them until the spots have scabbed.  (I have never understood this, isn’t the contagious period the two weeks before the spots appear??!!) So, after trying to sort childcare/swap days at work/book leave off work, I rang the docs to say I thought that my daughter had chicken pox as she had a few spots so could I see someone that day please. I was told that no one could see her and to be honest, there wasn’t much the doctor could do so they wouldn’t see her anyway.
 
Ooohhhhh I see!! I must have missed something, are all receptionists now medically trained and act as some sort of a triage??!! What a jolly good idea.  Oh hang on, nope your not medically trained and im ringing a doctors to say that my 13 month old had a rash which may be chicken pox and your saying no one will see me???
 
So, I politely, sternly and slowly explain the situation again. I - think – that – my – 13 – month – old – daughter – may – have – chicken – pox – but – she – only – has – 4 – spots -  so – I – don’t – know – if – its – something – else………
 
I know chicken pox cant be treated but I need a diagnosis!  What I have also forgotten to mention is that we had also just returned from Spain and I wanted mozzie bites and malaria ruled out but the receptionist smirked! Smirked !! ok, maybe the babe hasn’t got malaria but this is where the neurotic mum part comes in.
 
The receptionist still doc blocks me so I try another method. I call the doctors secretary herself.  She of course understands my worry as a first time mother and arranges an appointment for me to take babe in.  This is because as they always have, wait for it, emergency appts at the end of everyday especially for children.
 
Anyhoo, she did have chicken pox but was one of the lucky ones and only had 8 spots!!!
 
So, the moral of the story? Lunacy is perfectly acceptable in cases when it comes to your child being ill.  I must be fair though and add that my doctor is great and will always tell me to come back if im worried whilst assuring me that im  not a lunatic mother.  Even after the time when  he was trying to take babbas temp, and he asked me to hold her whilst she was sitting up, one arm and hand supporting the head, the other her hand.  So, while he was putting the thermometer in her ear and she of course started to cry, I rubbed her hand to soothe her.  It was until Doc said ‘ I know im a bit upset about upsetting your baby, but there’s no need to comfort me….and I am married you know’ Yep, you got it I had been in fact stroking my doctors hand not my child’s……………………..

Advertising my blog

I don't profess to be a writer or someone who is taking this blog too seriously.  As described in my profile, this blog is a chance for me to have a rant and a moan about shopping with a buggy, that's all.

I think because when I first posted this blog to my Facebook profile, I received such a positive response I felt like my blog had a purpose (without sounding dramatic). 

Because of my new found confidence, I posted the link on Facebook (several times), Twitter, Digg and I went to Babycentre and posted it in one of their forums.

Boy was that a mistake.  I asked for constructive criticism and it turned out therewere alot of 'meanies' (ok, complete bitches) out there.  There were also alot of constructive mummies and should they ever read this, even though they didn't like my blog, I thank them for their feedback and have taken iton board :). ( Ps due to my post being a 'blog' it got suspended so I wasnt able to post anymore thank you blogs). 

Since when did the websites we relied on for advice, turn into some sort of 'cyber bullies forum'.  I admit, when I first became pregnant I used these baby forums for everything, 'does the faint line mean i'm pregnant' ' what day am I actually ovulating' etc and I found them helpful.  However, on sharing my blog I didnt realise I would get a reply like 'stupid bitch' 'is she thick or something' 'I live in Exeter and she's talking shit'.  I'm just glad I don't have to associate with these people and clearly my concept is lost on them..........

H & M

I love H & M clothes, in fact when I found out they had a kids section I was very pleased indeed.  H & M is a  low price high fashion store and I couldn't wait to see what I could buy babba to try and make her into the little fashionita I had dreamt she would become!  The Exeter shop is huge and yep, not to disappoint, the children's section is on the first floor only accessible for those mum's who have a pram via a lift.  A lift which is located at the back of the shop!! Now, for those mums who think why take a pram to all of these shops, take a sling.  When shopping, I end up with bags.  Babba also has her own bag, her changing bag.  Carrying a changing bag, a baby in a sling and any bags of shopping I have purchased is more of a pain in the ass then getting prams into shops.  Anyhoo, I'm at the back of the store waiting for the lift to come down.  (does anyone else get alot of electric shocks pressing a button for a lift or am I some sort of a freak?!)  One thing I have noticed in my newly found time in spent in lifts is that lifts just aren't for those moaning minnie mums like me, they are for staff to transport clothes rails up and down.  I'm sure that they are equally annoyed when coming out of the lift faced with mums prams and kiddies !!! So, I'm in the lift, again a small one, gets up to the first floor and get out of the lift.  Now why is it, and I admit I do this too, that when waiting for a lift even though 9 times out of 10 someone will be coming out of the lift before you can get in, we still wait for the lift right up close by the doors. Which means we have to reverse right back to let someone out.  When there are lots of rails or other mums behind you this is not fun.  Once I got out of the lift and headed through the women's, men and older children clothing section I got to the baby bit.  There was alot of lovely things but not a great selection! Boo!! I did manage to pick up a tres chic Rolling Stones dress for her though. How cool am I.........

Dinkys, Exeter

Love love love Dinkys!! When I first went there with the chicas, babba was only small so I didn't think too much about it. Now babbas walking and refusing to be 

restrained in any kind of baby travelling unit I want her to be able to run riot safely. Dinky's is a small play cafe for kiddies. So there's a ramp to get into it, a Wendy 

house, high chair seat things, a soft play area including slides and ball pools, books, 

toys, walkers and bouncy chairs !! Mums can sit and have beverages and snacks and catch 

up with their buddies! There's a toilet, changing area and potties too! The cafe offers 

adult food and child's food, a variety of fruit, biscuits and ice cream is also on offer! 

Babba had a great time and mum enjoyed a nice cup of coffee. Great little idea but I 

know it gets busy in there.  I don't know about you but everytime I play in a ball pool,

I feel like I need a pint size hand sanitiser! So it was nice to see they had a hygiene 

sign up that says they have the area cleaned.  Play cafes rock, plus if your little one is having

a mega tantrum or throwing food everywhere no one bats an eyelid!  Sometimes you do get the scenarios where

someone's daughter will have three dollies and three prams or there's a boy off burying

the other kids shoes in the ball pool, perhaps there needs to be a bit of 'Dinkys' etiquette?!!!!

Mothercare, Exeter

Mothercare’s Mission Statement:‘our mission is to meet the needs and aspirations of parents for their children,worldwide’  So, does the Exeter store match their statement?  Well, it’s all located on one floor, they have baby changing facilities, a bottle warmer, and automatic doors on arrival! So it would seem to me that shopping in this store should be fairly hassle free.

I must admit that everytime I have been to this shop, it’s been a pretty painless experience.  But surely as a leading child and baby retailer it should have left more of an impression on me? Surely my visits there should make me want to go to back there everytime and nowhere else because it literally does stock everything a mum needs for her babba?! So I thought, why aren’t I running up Fore Street with the tank and barging my way in to the hassle free automatic entrance doors ?

Firstly there's the price, their own brand clothes are ridiculously expensive!! Now Myleene Klass, yes you were in a band (if you can call it that) yes you wore a bikini in the jungle, yes you were on those M & S ads and yes you have children but £30 for a baby dress in your Mothercare range?? A black baby dress??!! Who likes to dress their little one in black?! (ok some mums may do and if your one, apologies no offence intended) (but really? Black!?)  It is refreshing though to see a shop sell prams and car seats so we can have a look and a bit of our play. (don't get me started on the lack of pram shops, that's another blog in it's itself)  Who needs kids entertainment when there are all those car seats straps to click together !! 

Secondly the stores layout, its bizarre! In some spots you have reams of space but in others its cramped and busy!  I particularly don’t like the bit that sells the bottles/dummies/miscellaneous baby equipment but the clothes rails are too close together. You can tell quite easily, there’s a simple test.  If your pushing a pram through the hanging rails of clothes and come the end you have around 4 outfits on top of your pram that you didn’t actually pick up, you know the aisles aren’t wide enough.

Now as first time mum who decided to feed babba myself, when venturing into town my first question was where do I feed??!! I wasn’t confident about doing it in public, I was on my own, what if it took an hour, all these thoughts were going on in my head.  One of the yummy mummy brigrade advised me that Mothercare had a changing and feeding room! Brilliant I thought what a bleedin genius idea.  So I prepared one of my first trips to town on my own with babba like a military operation and once I felt I could accept the mission headed off.  Within thirty minutes of being in town, babba needed feeding. Off to Mothercare I trot feeling smug with myself for my calmness and I went to the end of the store very easily and simply and entered the ‘room’.  I call it a room because I have no other words for it.  The first thing that hit me when entering the ‘room’ was the smell.  Now, I know babies sometimes don’t smell of talcum powder and Johnsons but this was a stale dirty– I haven’t been cleaned in ages – smell.  Yuck I thought.  The second thing that hit was me the lack of privacy. There were a couple of changing units, and some seats.  Now, this is a lot more than other shops have but that’s no excuse to make them cramped and dirty.  There was no ventilation, and the room had 3 mothers in, one feeding the other two changing.  Three mothers come with six things; 3 buggies and 3 babies.  Put this in a small dirty room and the last thing you want to do is sit down and feed your child.  But needs must and all that.  So Mothercare, please clean up your changing room and utilise your space ooh and a few more sales wouldn't go a miss.  Oh yes,and for those of you who like striking up a conversation with strangers whilst they are trying to feed their child in a dirty small room, please don’t.  Its off putting and just plain annoying.  Having said that it was better than turning the other way to look at the nappy bin with shitty nappies spilling out of the top……………………………………………perhaps that is why I don't rush to go back...

Clarkes, Exeter High Street

Oops, has it really been 8 weeks since babba had her feet measured? didn’t the sales lady say the feet should be measured every 4 -5 weeks? Hmmmm well her toes aren’t sticking out at the end and shes walking ok so that must be a good sign.  I decided I had better take her back to a shoe shop before social services come knocking on my door.  After the whole Russell and Bromley incident I thought I would try out Clarkes.  I had a fab memory of Clarkes, a cool machine I got to stick my foot into and I got these sparkly black shoes which had a secret key on the bottom of them! Brilliant! Why didn’t I go to Clarkes in the first place!

Unfortunately on this trip it was just babba and I as hubby had to work and I really didn’t want my daughters feet suffering anymore than they should.  Flooded with childhood memories (ok im being slightly dramatic but these shoes I had as a kid were really really fab, there was even an advert which had a girl dressed as a princess running in them!) I go into Clarkes and then my anxiety starts as I remember coming here on a previous visit with my bestest yummy mummy to have her daughters feet measured. Yep, you got it,  to get to the childrens shoe section I have to manoeuvre the pram through the store to the back where I can get a lift. And even better, there’s a 50% sale on so its not busy at all….........not.  After many ‘excuse me’ ‘sorry can I just scoot past’ ‘sorry for running over your toe’ I get to the lift, press the button and wait. And wait. Door opens and what a surprise, a mum with a buggy wants to come out. So with the sales crowd behind me I try to remain calm and shuffle past and get in the lift.  The lift which can only just fit me and my pram might I add so it’s a good thing im not a double buggy mum!

We arrive in the basement, sorry childrens section, where i'm met by a smiley assistant who tells me to take a ticket.  'dont worry' she says, 'there's only four people in front of you'.  Only four ay? Ok, so im in a pokey basement with a tank of a pram, shared with approximately 7 kiddiwinks, 6 parents and 3 staff members, extra shoe racks because of the sale and my stress levels start to rise.  So as a mum with a pram, how am I meant to walk around to look at all of the shoes available to my babba? Where do we sit? Why oh why have they put rows and rows of shoes within reach of the ickle ones? It was like a jigsaw puzzle trying to put all of the shoes back that Ava had stolen off the shelves! How do I keep little one entertained long enough whilst 4 other young ones are trying on shoes??!  Part of me wants to turn around and run into the tin can lift and escape back to Russell & Bromley, but it's too much of a hassle getting the tank back to the lift!! One banana, a box of raisins and two runs around the shop later our ticket number is finally called.  So, she has gone up 1 size and 2 widths and the only good thing to come out of this experience was that we got a perfick pair of shoes for half price !!  So, Russell & Bromley done, Clarkes done, babba will need more footwear in the near future but none of these shops have filled me with the urge to go running back !! Perhaps Chuckle Shoes in Fore Street isn't such a no no after all.........................................

Russell & Bromley, Exeter

So, my little angel started taking her first steps and straightaway it was an excuse to go out and buy a pair of shoes. My husband and I wanted to go together to 'share' the experience and we headed off for Russell and Bromley as all of the kids shoes advertised in the ground floor window looked lovely. We walk in, are approached by an extremely nice sales assistant who asks how can she help. Great! Easy so far !! With a proud mum smile and a slightly put on posh accent (I am in Russell and Bromley don't you know) I state that my twelve month old daughter has taken some steps so we must buy her some shoes immediately. Ah ha, you will need to go upstairs for children's footwear says the assistant then looking over my shoulder for her next customer as there is clearly no commission in snotty kids shoes. Upstairs you say! What a surprise I mumble, where's your lift please ? We don't have one you need to go up the stairs, but you can leave your pram here I will watch it. I only said my daughter had taken a few steps she can't bloody walk up stairs !! It's all well and good leaving the pram there but what if I had tons if shopping bags too? and no proud dad by my side?! We head off upstairs to meet another sales assistant who looks slightly petrified of my precious little babba, 'err how can I help?' she stutters. After checking mine, babba and hubbie's faces to make sure a grotesque disfigurement hasn't suddenly sprouted,  I repeat our purpose of the visit and the girl goes off to get the foot measuring thing. She comes back and starts to measure my babbas foot who starts to cry clearly disgusted at the crappy range of footwear in front of her, and the sales girl asks if she's ok as the last child she measured bit her. Bit her ?!! Nope, my child's fangs aren't out today, perhaps the last one had been shopping with their mum and had finally had enough of traipsing up and down shops and finally snapped in Russell and Bromley ????
Needless to say there was no biting, in fact babba kissed and cuddled the sales assistant so she was clearly happy with mummys choice of shoes.  Anyhoo, since then babbas feet have grown and I can't wait to tell you about my experience in Clarkes..........

Boots, High Street, Exeter

HMPF!! My first blog please be kind!!
So, as one of the 'The UK's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer' I find Boots Exeter High Street branch to be one of the top child-unfriendly stores.  This shop has two floors, the first covers your make up, toiletries and fragrance the second your pharmacy, photos and baby products.  Brilliant ! So when I want to 'pop in' to get some nappies, I only have to manoeuvre my pram through all of the aisles, past all of the customers trying on make-up/perfumes, pray there is no queue for the lift as there isnt enough room between the front of the lift and the end of the aisle for two mummies and two buggies, wait for the lift, get in the lift (as long as another mum isnt in there in which case you have to reverse back down the aisle) get to the next floor, get out of the lift, do the obligatory buggy back and forth dance with any mum who is waiting for the lift and whoop I can start to shop!! Great, I can see the nappies, Huggies, Boots own, hmmmm I need Pampers, ooh there they are, oh hang on, there is a whacking great pillar between me and a pack of size 4 Pampers Active. How convenient, so I put my pram skills into practice manoeuvre back and get into the next aisle to get my simple pack of nappies.  Also isnt it great that when you join Boots parenting club, you get double points on all baby products!! Fab !! So what do alot of mums that dont breastfeed/have breastfed for a bit buy lots of in the first twelve months of their babbas life? Formula milk! Great stuff, so spending £40 a month and getting double points is a great deal.  Err excuse me Boots Sales Assistant lady, you havent given me my points for purchasing a tub of your finest powdered baby juice.  What's that?? Nil Points?? Because Boots and the Government think breast is best?? You cant be seen to be promoting Aptamil and Cow's Gate finest?? Why bloody sell it then !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

advertising points near formula milk! Misleading??!!

Oh hang on, babba needs changing and quick before leaks happen and she stinks out the store.  Now, where would the baby changing area in 'The UK's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer' which sells the largest amount of baby products be, nice Boots Sale Assistant tells me there isnt one.

Update !!! I have been informed by the 'yummy mummies' that there is in fact a broom cupboard, sorry changing room on the first floor. Yep the first floor, when all of the baby products are on the second. Brilliant.