I remember when my son was taking his first steps; the first thing that we started thinking of was to get a playpen and a safety gate. he was almost 11 months then and it was disturbing for us to watch him trying to climb something too high for him and fall- I know its normal but as a mom, we just feel the pain a bit more, especially when it is the first baby or when it's new- after a months we just get used to it.

So we started looking around for something cheaper on internet- we bumped into a polish site who sold the wooden playpens of different sizes. After extensive research, we bought the one with six side slats for around £35. We thought once our child walks a bit more, we will use it as a safety gate. We could use it in shape of rectangle, hexagon or just use four sides like a square. One of the slats could also be fixed as a safety gates near stairs. So first we set up the playpen with all the sides and I have to admit, our son used to hate being in it. He felt as he was left out and there was enough space for parents to go in to so me or his dad would be with him in it. Soon he started to push the sides and soon one by one the wooden joints started breaking. So our hexagon became a pentagon and then a square. But after that he wanted to explore more things around the house and we got used to him falling and getting up. But the good thing is in stead of using this as a playpen, we are until now using it as cage around our TV and DVD player. So he actually can't reach them. But we never got to use it as a safety gate- it was way too complicated. We had to fix it and so didn't bother.

So I suggest that buying wooden playpens are not a good idea but you can use it as a safety cage around TVs or just to keep all the toys in one place.