Reviewed by B
Overall: Nappy change, rest, feed and play. Basic, uninviting, cold. Would prefer to nip across the road to Castle Towers and use one of the better rooms over there.
Good Points: Microwave is clean and works. It’s easy to find. The chairs are comfortable. The room is spacious.
Bad Points: Difficult to open the door when you have a pram to get inside. No decent privacy for feeding. No paper towels. Play area is just an empty cold grey section with a child safety gate – more like a holding pen. Nappy bins on opposite side of the room to the change bench. Nappy bins are right next to the sink and food prep area.
Wow. You know, I would have thought that with the amount of money thrown into building this place, the baby health clinic being on the bottom floor, library with kids activities on the top floor, and loads of family activities happening on this floor…..the Parent Room would be just a little better equipped. Maybe my expectations are getting a little high these days (NOT!).
My little princess and I had come to the community centre for a trial class of Kinder Musik. The teacher was lovely, the other mums a little cool, but the babies were all gorgeous. At only 3mths old though, we gave the idea of registering for the full program a miss and enrolled bubs in swimming the following month. Not knocking music for kids at all, just didn’t think it was what my little one needed at the time.
The Parent Room is located on Level 1 of the centre. Get out of the lifts, walk around to your left. On the wall to the right is the toilets, and further along you’ll see the door for the Parent Room. The other loos are far sexier than the Parent Room , which is disappointing. It’s almost like it was put in here as an after-thought.
During weekdays, however, it is fairly quiet which is a lovely thing. But it’s also probably because there are much better facilities just across the road!
The door is one of those pesky self-closing things, and makes it tricky to get inside with your pram. The screen to your left as you come in has the feeding/rest area on the other side. It’s two stained cloth armchairs with a small mobile table. No privacy, not nice sitting on such grubby seats.
To change your little one, you’d have to use the long white bench in the middle of the room. It’s just a bench. No grooves to rest your baby in, no bins within reach……just a bench. The nappy bins are on the opposite side of the room (the same side as the feeding area), right next to the sink where the fridge are microwave are – not very hygienic!
Now after you have changed little bottoms, the closest sink for you is at the end of the bench against the wall. Soap dispenser and hand dryer available. Adjacent to the sink is the loo. Not much to report there either.
For me, the worst thing is the play area. It’s more like a holding pen for little ones and I would never put my little girl in there. Seriously, it’s 3 walls and a child safety gate. Nothing to do in there at all. No toys, tv, chairs, cushions, paintings on the wall – NOTHING!! Might come in useful if you need a ‘naughty corner’ or something like that…..but it’s just horrible.
Bubs & I did what we needed to in there and left pretty quickly. Tried to have a feed on those chairs, but not even having a curtain for privacy made it uncomfortable for me, and also for my bub. Changed a nappy as quickly as possible and left. If you are in the centre and need something right away, use it. It does the job. If you and your little ones can wait a few more minutes until you can get somewhere more comfortable and private, then go for it. Even just a bit of colour in the place would be nice (or putting the nappy bins under the nappy bench – that would be a good start).