When to pack away the Playmat?

don’t be shy,

you will always be your childs favourite toy.

Ernie absolutely loved his playmat. For about 1 month.

I have a really good jungle gym from Skip Hop and my friend is expecting baby in June. I was going to buy it for her as a present but will Ernie have grown out of his by then? I’m wondering if instead we just lend her ours and buy her something different…

The response from my mum friends was mixed. Some said they tend to grow out of it about 6 months-ish, another said that once they can sit up they are past the jungle gyms really.

However another mum whos little boy is nearly 10 months still uses his every day, only it's not on the floor but in his travel cot which they use as a play pen? I guess it could soften the blow of being left in the play pen (if this is something you plan to use).

Considering it’s something Ernies sees in his play area here every day too, and it has his long time favourite toy dangling it does seems a little sad to pack it away…

How long did your little ones use theirs for? I will keep you guys posted…

or

We are still using our at 9.5 months, but our DD isn't crawling and has only been sitting well for about a month or so, so it is still a good novelty to play with from a sitting position, and she rolls around under it. Our is quite good, with lots of different stuff going on, so I think that is why she is still interested - it's grown with her. It's not about tryong to reach stuff now, but examingin the toys, rattling them, banging other toys against them etc. She doesn't use it as much now, but at least once a day. Oh, also her new favourite thing is to be pulled into a standing position and hold on to the top of the arches, looking at the leaves and the unit which plays music (with me there to catch her of course, it isn't that sturdy and neiother are her legs!)!

Having said that, none of my other 'mum' friends are still using them - I think ours is a bit 'slow' on the physical development front!

My DTs are 2.8 and I am still using ours!

I got a very large Taf toys ones which was ideal for twins. When they grew out of the dangly toys - I removed the toys and the arches and it is now a very colourful rug in their bedroom.

It is bright and fun and we love it in their room. Have used it as a place to point / steer the boys when they were being sick  and so has saved the carpet on numerous occasions - just goes in the wash.

They went through a phase of walking around the house with one of the arches each and waving them around when they were around 18 months.

We definately got value for money out of ours. I think a lot of "baby" stuff can get rescurrected and have a second wind when the kids are older.