by iamcrabstix | Nov 17, 2017 | general parenting
We’ve had a bit of a dilemma at bath time of late, my partner and I both work full-time, so by the time bath time comes around little man is soooooo very tired. So we have been on a bit of a mission in making bathtimes fun again, otherwise this child will never be clean!
He just wants to watch Iggle Piggle and have his milk, he doesn’t want to go in the bath! So we have had a few little tantrums and a lot of standing up trying to get out of the bath as soon as he is put in!
We’ve tried to switch things up a little bit, he’s too tired for his toys but one thing that has made a positive difference is by making the towel a big feature and something he’s excited to use at the end!
This was made possible thanks to this brilliant Dinosaur hooded towel, which acts almost like a fancy dress costume!
This has made the big drama of getting out of the bath and putting pyjamas on a lot easier to deal with as he now sits with his hands in the paw areas and says ‘RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA’ whilst he is getting dressed. A lot more fun all round!
We’re off on holiday soon, so the next test is how jealous the other little ones will be of this epic towel around the pool! I’d usually never think of being a little one something like this as a present, but I can guarantee it would be a welcome Christmas gift for a little one who already has too many toys!
Disclosure: We were given this product for the purposes of inclusion in a Christmas gift guide, but the product was so popular in our house that I believed that it warranted a post of its own. All views are, of course my own, and endorsed by RLT’s smiley, happy face at the end of bathtime.
by iamcrabstix | Oct 12, 2017 | general parenting
I’d never been maternal until my niece and nephew were born. More so my nephew. I was in a good relationship and I was the happiest I had ever been, so I started to think about children.
However, getting pregnant unexpectedly expedited any conversations we would have about having babies! In April 2015, I found out I was pregnant! We’d been together just under two years, lived together and after the initial shock were very happy and excited. Unfortunately life had other plans and at a scan we found out that the pregnancy sac was progressing, however the yolk was much smaller than anticipated and they thought it had not grown for a number of weeks. Horrific news and I’ll never get over and recover from those feelings. But it did make us both realise that having a child was something we definitely wanted. So after a few months to heal mentally and get life back on track, we decided to try for a baby and within that first month we were expecting! Fast forward nine months and RLT joined us!
He would never have been here if these series of events never happened, they say everything happens for a reason. RLT was meant to be. We wouldn’t be without him, he is everything.
by iamcrabstix | Oct 12, 2017 | general parenting
I’m Nicola, I am 34, from the mighty fine County of Durham.
I’m a recovering travelling fanatic (mostly Asia), moral crusader (I don’t eat pigs because I like them) and an avid fan of all things Orla Kiely. In fact, my cat is called Orla Kitty!
I am Mum to RLT, who was born June 2016. When I’m not being a mum I work in a place of education in the business support section. My partner, Mark, runs newspaper websites. We’ve been together since 2013 – we met a week before I turned 30!
I am aunt to Millie (6) and Teddie (3) and I have one brother who is 15 months younger than me. My parents have recently separated after 34 years of marriage, which is pretty bloody sad and hard to deal with regardless of your age.
I cut all of my hair off when I was seven – it was so uneven that I had to have a grade 1 all over to even it out – quite the talking point as a girl when you have just started a new school! Messing with my hair is something that has stayed with me at times of anxiety – which as I have got older is something that has become quite pronounced.
by iamcrabstix | Aug 28, 2017 | general parenting
I am taking part in Donna from What the Redhead Said‘s Living Arrows – which is a celebration of childhood!
We could all do with a little more celebration in our lives!
To quote Donna, “The project originally took it’s name from a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” and every Monday we share a moment from our week and invite others to do the same as part of this linky.”
Week 35/52 Living Arrows
Bank Holiday
We’ve had a lovely few days, viva bank holiday weekends! Life feels better when you know that there is no work on Monday!
We had our usual day together on Friday which we spent walking in the nature reserve and the local gymnastic centre open play session.
Then Saturday we went to a food festival and walked around the nature reserve once again.
Solo parenting this week as my partner is going to do the Tour De Mont Blanc! Rather him than me!
by iamcrabstix | Aug 8, 2017 | general parenting, Reviews
MACLAREN CUSTOMER SERVICE
I’ve had the most awful experience of trying to report faulty goods to Maclaren Customer Service that I felt compelled to write about my experience.
Maclaren no longer will deal with customers or service centres over the phone, they will only work through digital platforms. No problem you’d think in this day-in-age, but what do you do if your local service centre doesn’t use email? This made a massive problem for me and the subsequent responses from Maclaren (or lack of) made me astounded as to how they treat customers with product issues.
I purchased my Maclaren Orla Kiely quest in January 2017, only to notice that there didn’t seem to be enough material to support the mechanism of the foot rest, therefore the underside of the buggy material was ripped on both sides. Fearful that this expensive pushchair was going to completely rip or catch something and create irrepairable damage, I contacted Maclaren through twitter who advised me to email them with the problem. I did so, to then have a generic link to service centres sent to me.
These tears started appearing shortly after starting to use the pushchair. Not what is expected of an item with RRP £295
I went to my local service centre to be told they no longer were working with Maclaren, but they had not been successful in getting their details removed from their website. Weird I thought, as I’d contacted them via Facebook beforehand and they’d never mentioned this, however, they were keen to discuss over the phone my problem (I thought I’d struggle to explain so took it to them on my lunch break).
The gentleman in the service centre advised me I’d need a replacement as it couldn’t be fixed and got out his contacts book to call the numbers he had, only to find every number he had previously used having a voice message to email. He advised that he had previously had issues with getting in touch with Maclaren, which had led to his decision to no longer work with them, sentiments which were echoed by another service provider he called for advice.
After an hour in his store and refusing my requests to send an email to Maclaren on my behalf, he advised me to go to another service centre around thirty miles away, as he didn’t have any further time to help me. This was not only unhelpful but not possible (I’ve only got a full-time job and a small child, so finding the time to drive thirty miles in the opposite direction to work and home was difficult). He was unwilling to put anything in writing, so my efforts had stalled. He took my details and said give him 24 hours and if I didn’t hear anything else from him he couldn’t help. This I felt was a tactic to get me out of his shop and it is now a month later and I am still to hear from him, so believe this was a fair assumption. I tweeted Maclaren a few times whilst I was in the service centre, as well as emailed them, but these appeared to be automated responses as they were not addressing my question of ‘can the service centre ring you as he doesn’t use email’.
24 hours later, didn’t hear anything from the service centre (shock horror) so I contacted Maclaren again through their live chat system online, wanting to converse with a real person and not an auto response which I was getting from email and twitter. The responses I got were really unhelpful. I was told the service centre could use a platform to report it, if so the service centre weren’t aware of this, neither were others he called for advice. There was absolutely no solution other than email.
The person I was talking to kept giving me the phone number of the service centre rather than a customer service phone number despite me repeating my problem quite a few times. The chat just got worse. At one point the person told me they were responsible for the German market, like it was my issue he was on the live chat for his company!
Here how the chat ended as it was emailed to me afterwards (Nicola being me):
01:29:42 PM) Nicola: he won’t use email, this is the problem! 🙁
(01:30:07 PM) Benjamin: i don’t have a number, because we don’t have a customer service number
(01:30:31 PM) Nicola: he shouldn’t be allowed to be your service centre if he can’t help people!
(01:32:19 PM) Benjamin: yes, but i don’t know the service centers in uk, i’m responsible for the german market
(01:37:11 PM) Nicola: Can you transfer my livechat to someone that can help me then?
(01:38:06 PM) Benjamin: you can send an email to customercare@maclarenbaby.com
(01:38:24 PM) Nicola: I have. I’d like to deal with someone now not in 24 hours time, please.
(01:38:56 PM) Benjamin: that’s the only thing i can do, or you send an email to claire.jaques@maclarenbaby.com who is for uk
(01:41:31 PM) Nicola: I have done that. Apologies, you’d assume a company like maclaren would have a call centre not a few account managers answering this.
(01:42:49 PM) Benjamin: this is the only thing i can do for you, that has been all my possibilities
I emailed the UK person as Benjamin suggested on 6th July and to date, I have not had a response. I know it was delivered as she had an out of office on, which stated she returned to work that date.
As I had such a terrible experience, I decided that I couldn’t face going round in circles like this again. This product retails at £295, it isn’t exactly pennies. So I contacted Boots, which is where I bought the goods from and explained the situation. Boots organised a refund for me as they stated that they no longer stocked the item.
I then went to Mothercare to try out some new pushchairs and told them of my experience. They also shared their concern of Maclaren customer service and said that they had three ongoing customer complaints that had not been dealt with adequately. If someone the size of Mothercare is having issues, one little guy like me has no chance.
I felt the entire customer service experience (or lack of) from Maclaren was disgusting. A few other people have also had issues which I found here.
There are several negative reviews of the product on Amazon too, which is a shame as it is damaging the reputation of my favourite designer Orla Kiely by association.
This is completely my own opinion, based on my own experience and I’m sure many other people have had positive experiences.
by iamcrabstix | Jun 10, 2017 | general parenting
We are struggling for first birthday gift ideas! When your child seems to collect yellow plastic as a hobby it can be quite hard to find things he needs for his first birthday. We are a week away from the big day and we still have bought nothing (with exception of Dad buying him his first British Lions kit!)
Here are a few things that we are currently thinking about buying, ideas and thoughts would be appreciated!
A Wooden Playhouse
Our garden is full of gravel, rockeries and plants – not exactly child-friendly. The cat actually has a house in the wooden house in the garden, so it feels a bit mean that RLT doesn’t have ownership over anything. The garden is my OH’s pride and joy, so it has to be something that keeps with his aesthetic. He suggested this BillyOH Bunny Max Playhouse (pictured above), this is the top contender at the moment. But at aged one, will the little man appreciate it? Maybe not.
Musical Instruments
As much as a little one can display a like for things, he seems to like music; whether that be singing songs, tv or shaking maracas, he likes it all. Therefore we were thinking of something musical – my brother may buy him a drum kit as revenge for all of the noisy toys I have bought his kids in the past.
Anything Elmo
He adores Elmo, which is largely my doing with saying ‘OH HIIIIIIIII’ in a very high pitched voice and playing ‘Elmo’s Song’ over and over again on youtube. What can I say? I love the little red fella! My niece and nephew were also subjected to this and love him also as a consequence. When my niece was small, I bought her a Let’s Rock Elmo, which I would love to get RLT, but unfortunately, it is now a ridiculous price and can’t seem to find anything in stores except a cuddly version of Elmo. We already got one of these from H&M, so I’m running out of Elmo-related ideas! I know it would be a winner if I could find a noisy Elmo toy!
First tool kit
RLT got some tools from my nephew, which he loves… but he wanders around with a single spanner as there wasn’t a full set! He sure does love that spanner, so we were thinking about buying him a tool kit, belt or a workshop. There is one at his playgroup, which is a VTECH Handy Hands Workbench and he absolutely loves it, but unfortunately, VTECH no longer manufactures it and told me to check Amazon or eBay for second-hand ones. The only one I could find was collection only from far far away! BOOOOOO.
What did you buy for your baby’s first birthday? I’d be interested to know for ideas!
