Children should be supervised at all times, every parent knows that. In relaity, it is not possible to watch your kids all the time, other things need to be done at the same time. preparing food, washing clothes and bottles does not happen by itself! Not in our house anyway. If anyone has any spare housework pixies, please send them immediately.

We bought this playpen to securely contain our son at about a year old when he was crawling/wobbling round the house and for somewhere safe for him to snooze on his own. The mesh sides worried me a little but they are extremely tough and do not seem to split when poked with edges of toys or when picked at with little fingers.

The playpen is made up of two main parts. The frame outer folds out to make the playpen rigid then a padded base fits snuggly into the bottom and velcro straps through underneath for securing. The only frustration I have had with it is getting the catches to snap locked properly. This seems to be when folding up or out, the base needs to be pulled up from the middle about 18" to let the sides catch/uncatch properly and can get a bit annoying when they don't work properly. I have never had the playpen fold up or catches come undone when in use though.

Having in-laws some distance away it makes a comfortable cot as well. The base is covered in a nylon fabric that does not seem to make them sweat or overheat either which is excellent. When the little darlings tip bottles of milk out into the playpen, the base can be removed soaked and scrubbed and hung out to dry with no damage to the padded filling. All in all, with about two years use and abuse our travel cot is still going strong!

Excellent investment!