OcUK Dadsnet thread

[Liquid_Entity]

Please can anyone recommend a bicycle for a 5yr old under £150 with stabilisers etc. He had a balance bike since he was 2 and he got a hand me down bike from a friend but it didn't feel like his own so want to get him a gift wrapped Xmas bike. When I tried to teach him pedals he just didn't get it so hoping now we've moved and we have lots of open spaces away from cars this will help with confidence

 

[RoboCod]

child care is just nuts, we had ours full time at one point and it was over £1.6k per month. That’s more than my mortgage.

I cut back my work and went part time so I only work Friday to Sunday now. The baby is in nursery on Fridays which is around £400 per month which is much more manageable. My GF only has to look after her on her own for 2 days a week. More than that and she can’t really cope.

My partner works from home full time plus looking after our little one and with 2nd on the way. She definitely doesn't "cope"

 

[Freefaller]

The one thing I'm actually really enjoying about lockdown is how much time I'm spending with the kids. Even though I work from home and they go to school / childcare it's just awesome being around them so much.

Though I miss being able to take them swimming and other activities etc..

Oh I agree with Robocod, boys are much more boisterous and menaces than girls! We have one of each and had we had a boy first we may not have tried for a second!!!

 

[Abraxaz1]

So I'm the bad guy in the house now, cos I pointed out that my missus laziness has led to my daughters eating issues.

Basically I look after my daughter whilst my missus cooks/ has her own time. Now amazingly our daughter is not eating anything after nursery because when she gets home mummy only cooks bloody bagels or gives her chocolate or ******* biscuits.

Now she won't eat lunch in nursery because it's not bloody toast. So she's not eating any meals bar ******* toast.

So I just cooked her grilled chicken strips, carrots, peas, sweetcorn and mashed potatoes and of course she won't eat any. Screaming she don't like it and asking for toast.

In fact when asked would she rather go to bed instead of eating dinner, she got up and walked off to her bedroom...

I literally am the one that sits down with her, goes through the nursery home school work and generally plays with her. Whilst my missus sits on her bloody phone or in the office making crap that she apparently sells on etsy.

After stating the above I'm now getting the silent treatment after being called all the names under the sun. I really do hate being a dad sometimes.

/rant

 

[godinman]

Sounds like you're doing a great job mate, you should be proud!

Couple of things -
- Kids are smart, keep at it with the good food and she'll soon learn that even if mummy lets her eat what she wants, daddy ain't gonna take that ****, soon enough she will eat what you put in front of her.
-Ref the above, a few missed meals won't harm, stay strong and she will learn!
- What about cooking up some batches of decent food (pasta, soup etc) that your more lazy half can microwave if cooking is too much for her?
- It's hard work having enough energy at the end of the day for looking at school work and playing etc, good on you for doing it and it will be worth it, you'll be bonding with her loads which it awesome.

Does sound like a difficult situation, and it's easy to give advice on someone else's problem , hope it gets sorted for you!

 

[Tinders]

God forbid us dads criticise moms. My mrs is golden, she does take care of me and the kids well, but she has instilled bad sleeping habits with all 3 of our kids. its so damn frustrating, as when i bring it up im the devil! Child no 3 has developed a liking for our bed at the moment, man its basically been 2 weeks of crap sleep for me, the mrs is one of those annoying people that falls a asleep in milliseconds!

Bloody lockdown means i cant have a work trip away either! So im also getting the cold shoulder treatment

 

[theone8181]

God forbid us dads criticise moms. My mrs is golden, she does take care of me and the kids well, but she has instilled bad sleeping habits with all 3 of our kids. its so damn frustrating, as when i bring it up im the devil! Child no 3 has developed a liking for our bed at the moment, man its basically been 2 weeks of crap sleep for me, the mrs is one of those annoying people that falls a asleep in milliseconds!

Bloody lockdown means i cant have a work trip away either! So im also getting the cold shoulder treatment

We had a year of my son visiting us, which we only stopped when we went on holiday and he was sharing a room with his sister (I assume it was a scared to be lonely type thing), once he stayed in his bed for the night we made a big deal out of it (and let him play some video games as a treat) so it's pretty good now.

 

[jellybeard999]

Has anyone bought a travel system recently? Any recommendations?

Currently looking at https://www.trendybaby.co.uk/cosatt...isofix-travel-system-bundle-charcoal-fox-tale

I like the idea that the car seat/isofix base can be lifted straight onto the pushchair frame.

My main concern is that the pushchair bit doesn't look very substantial and they'll grow out of it quickly, but this seems to be the case with every brand. The car seats included in these systems seem to only be 0+ , so maybe the pushchair is designed to suit the same timeframe. Is it just expected that by 2yo you'll be at the point where they need a new car seat (hopefully 0/1/2/3 to see them through) and a new pushchair as they'll be toddling by then?

I also saw this https://www.trendybaby.co.uk/joie-c...ture-i-base-advance-travel-system-navy-blazer which comes with a bigger car seat too, but as that only goes up to 4yo, I'd need another seat anyway - so it doesn't seem as though I'd be much better off!

Any recommendations or advice appreciated

I'm in no rush - first baby due in May - but planning ahead for Black Friday and Christmas sales.

 

[RoboCod]

Best advice... Don't spend fortunes because, like you say, they'll grow out of it in no time.

 

[Arsonist]

Has anyone bought a travel system recently? Any recommendations?

Currently looking at https://www.trendybaby.co.uk/cosatt...isofix-travel-system-bundle-charcoal-fox-tale

I like the idea that the car seat/isofix base can be lifted straight onto the pushchair frame.

My main concern is that the pushchair bit doesn't look very substantial and they'll grow out of it quickly, but this seems to be the case with every brand. The car seats included in these systems seem to only be 0+ , so maybe the pushchair is designed to suit the same timeframe. Is it just expected that by 2yo you'll be at the point where they need a new car seat (hopefully 0/1/2/3 to see them through) and a new pushchair as they'll be toddling by then?

I also saw this https://www.trendybaby.co.uk/joie-c...ture-i-base-advance-travel-system-navy-blazer which comes with a bigger car seat too, but as that only goes up to 4yo, I'd need another seat anyway - so it doesn't seem as though I'd be much better off!

Any recommendations or advice appreciated

I'm in no rush - first baby due in May - but planning ahead for Black Friday and Christmas sales.

Got a 3 month old. I agree with others about not spending too much.

Re. Isofix, we got a fix in car base that you can drop the crib or pram attachment into, the same as the ones you've found. It makes life so much easier! We've never actually used the crib bit, he always just goes into the pram seat and sleeps happily in there. It literally takes 15 seconds when arriving somewhere to pull the pram from the boot, open it up, unclip the seat from the base in the car and click it into the pram. Same for the reverse too. Very happy with it. We will need a new system when he gets a bit bigger, but we get most things second hand anyway.

 

[Daaaavvveee]

Has anyone bought a travel system recently? Any recommendations?

Currently looking at https://www.trendybaby.co.uk/cosatt...isofix-travel-system-bundle-charcoal-fox-tale

I like the idea that the car seat/isofix base can be lifted straight onto the pushchair frame.

My main concern is that the pushchair bit doesn't look very substantial and they'll grow out of it quickly, but this seems to be the case with every brand. The car seats included in these systems seem to only be 0+ , so maybe the pushchair is designed to suit the same timeframe. Is it just expected that by 2yo you'll be at the point where they need a new car seat (hopefully 0/1/2/3 to see them through) and a new pushchair as they'll be toddling by then?

I also saw this https://www.trendybaby.co.uk/joie-c...ture-i-base-advance-travel-system-navy-blazer which comes with a bigger car seat too, but as that only goes up to 4yo, I'd need another seat anyway - so it doesn't seem as though I'd be much better off!

Any recommendations or advice appreciated

I'm in no rush - first baby due in May - but planning ahead for Black Friday and Christmas sales.

we got ours from Amazon, if you have over £800 on your baby list you get 20% off.
In the end we bought the following;
Silver cross Coast pushchair;
Simplicity isofix base and then car seat
Car seat rain cover.
Silver cross coast to simplicity car seat adapters(car seat can unclip out the pram and straight into the isofix base)

I think it ended up costing around £650 in the end, then for the other car we went for a Joei Isofix ispin jobby

 

[DanTheMan]

I found the travel systems not as good as a separate pram and car seat combo as the car seat elements tends to be outgrown far too quickly.

I think we paid £150 for a joie 1-2-3 car car seat and £80 for a pram from online4baby. Unless you take your pram off road a lot or want to play pram top trumps, I don't see the point in spending hundreds on a pram.

It's amazing how fast they grow up and how annoying prams can be in a lot of situations. So many times I just found it easier to carry my daughter or stick her on my shoulders.

 

[uncle_rufus]

We have the Oyster 3 pushchair and a Silvercross car seat...

The pushchair has like lying flat, sitting up facing backwards and sitting up facing forwards configurations so should be good from 0-4 years, and the car seat is also 0-4 years as it can spin to face forwards or backwards (or towards the door which makes it easy to get them in or out). Really happy with the quality of both and feel like they will last - we considered the travel systems but since everywhere tells you not to leave them in a car-seat style seat for extended periods then what's the point of being able to attach the car seat to the pushchair frame? Unless your entire trip out is fairly short then you won't want them in that style seat for long. The Oyster 3 also had a bassinet attachment for newborns but we felt that for the sake of a few months we would just put her in the regular seat (with one of those "foot muffs" to provide a bit of a wraparound from the elements - and that's been fine so we're glad we didn't waste money on the bassinet...

They were both a little expensive but in our case we had family chomping at the bit to gift us some baby items so we figured we might as well - but definitely researched and aimed to get things (that are at least designed) to last for multiple years so we hopefully won't have to replace either (and hey, if we have more kids we will get even more value out of them!)

 

[Ev0]

Also have the Oyster 3 here, we got a deal that included the carry cot so we did use that until about 4 months. It was useful to use as a travel cot when visiting family at the time.

Haven’t got the foot muff but now it’s getting a bit chillier might grab one as at the moment we’re just wrapping a blanket about the bottom half, but this would be a nicer/easier way.

Went for separate pram and car seat combo as wanted a seat that ‘span’ as it made things easier getting in and out the car without the wife having to lug a heavy car seat in and out.

 

[AhhBisto]

Lovely morning, just dropped my daughter off to the nursery. Leaving the school a 5/6-year-old child shouted, "My brother has to self isolate". The mother wasn't too impressed, something tells me our school is the next to be hit :/

 

[chroniclard]

Please can anyone recommend a bicycle for a 5yr old under £150 with stabilisers etc. He had a balance bike since he was 2 and he got a hand me down bike from a friend but it didn't feel like his own so want to get him a gift wrapped Xmas bike. When I tried to teach him pedals he just didn't get it so hoping now we've moved and we have lots of open spaces away from cars this will help with confidence

Both mine had balance bikes, once we moved onto bikes with pedals they both were quite apprehensive at first but a few sessions persevering and encouraging them and they were away, no stabilisers. Personally going back to stabilisers seems like it would be a regression but no rush to get them riding I guess.

Unsure which bikes are decent at that price point.

 

[subbytna]

we got ours from Amazon, if you have over £800 on your baby list you get 20% off.
In the end we bought the following;
Silver cross Coast pushchair;
Simplicity isofix base and then car seat
Car seat rain cover.
Silver cross coast to simplicity car seat adapters(car seat can unclip out the pram and straight into the isofix base)

I think it ended up costing around £650 in the end, then for the other car we went for a Joei Isofix ispin jobby

A baby list? What's that?

 

[Liquid_Entity]

Both mine had balance bikes, once we moved onto bikes with pedals they both were quite apprehensive at first but a few sessions persevering and encouraging them and they were away, no stabilisers. Personally going back to stabilisers seems like it would be a regression but no rush to get them riding I guess.

Unsure which bikes are decent at that price point.

He's a very sensitive and scaredy kid so wanted to get the stabilisers on for a few days at least to get him used to pedals. He hasn't been on his balance bike for a year as he outgrew it. Hope it all comes back to him when I take them off haha

 

[Hilly]

we've got the iCandy peach travel system; little one has just grown out of the basonette, so deconstructed that over the weekend into the chair; Also have one of the cybex car seats, with a 360 base; The car seat is brill, as it also can sit on the frame of the pram, means we don't have to transfer the little one between seats - just take the seat out of the car and plop it onot the pram. Makes things much easier.

 

[Daaaavvveee]

A baby list? What's that?

I think Amazon call it the Wish List?