Playpens

Following as I also have a open plan house and have been contemplating having a play pen.

My baby wasn’t fussed by it for maybe a month? Then she started crawling and developed separation anxiety and just wanted to follow me around, so would whinge and cry and push her head into the sides of it whenever I put her in it. Haven’t used our playpen in maybe 2-3 months 😅 thank god we got it free!

We picked one up for free on Facebook and our little girl is quite happy in it because she can crawl about and play with her toys. We try to limit how long she's in there though so she doesn't start to associate it with us leaving the room. We have also sat in there with her to play

We have the Joie travel cot/ play pen and it's 50/50 whether my son still tolerate being in there. Most of the times tbh he whines and cries to come out sometimes before I've even set him down in it

We have one in the kitchen as it’s anopen plan with space with hard tiles and two dogs roaming around so it’s a safe place to pop my son when I need to do something in the kitchen. It’s big enough for him to crawl and move around, he can see into the kitchen and is happy playing with his toys in there for a short while whenever we need. We always spend a bit of time in there with him so he doesn’t associate it as a place he just gets left. It’s definitely been a life saver for us!

I just got one and he just screams and cries when he is put in it unless I go in it with him. So for us it wasn't very helpful baby gates worked out better