Categories
Cherrybrook NSW

New Furniture in Cherrybrook Parent Room!!!

After a tiring weekend of travel, my mood was lifted when I saw an email from one of the Managers  of Cherrybrook Shopping Village. Earlier this year, the private feeding cubicle received a much needed upgrade!!!!


If you’d read the original post about Cherrybrook Shopping Village, you would have seen the picture of the stained couch that filled the cubicle. Well that’s gone!!! In it’s place is a new red armchair plus side table. This is a huge improvement!!


The photos below are about to be added to the original review, with updated comments. If you’re in the Cherrybrook area, drop by the Village and let me know what you think of the new furniture in the feeding area. It looks great.






Categories
Cherrybrook NSW

Cherrybrook Shopping Village, Shepherd Rd, Cherrybrook NSW

Overall: Pretty good. Has all the basics. Nappy change, feed, rest and play. A nice change from the madness of multi-storey shopping centres, without being cheap and boring. 


Good Points: One Parent Room, which is very easy to find. Well sign posted. Push button auto slide door. Matching adult and child size toilets with matching sinks. Clean and tidy toilets. Wall mounted activity centre has all it’s pieces intact. Wide change bench. 


Bad Points: No additional powerpoints in the feeding cubicle. Sofa in the feeding cubicle is really horrible – very marked and stained. One sink to service both food prep and nappy change areas. Limited Parents with Prams parking spaces.

Look up and follow the signs.



Just before Christmas my little one and I thought we’d go somewhere different, and ended up at Cherrybrook Shopping Village. It’s definitely a nice change from the multilevel madness of most shopping centres, even just days before Christmas.


Parking for Parents With Prams is very limited (to your left as you enter the car park), but there is alot of regular parking and it’s a very short walk from most carspaces to the shops. So I wouldn’t stress too much if you can’t find a pram specific car park.


Something that bugged me though is the little money-sucking rides. There is at least one in each of the two main entrances to the shopping centre. I subscribe to the theory that only Grandma’s money works in these rides, and that seems to work for now but it doesn’t stop my little one from wanting to play on these machines regardless of whether or not they are ‘working’. Must be harder when kids have worked out that any kind of money works in these things. I’m hoping that by the time my angel has figured it out, pocket money will be in force then and my own $$ will be spared.


Now the thing I like most about this place, apart from being all on one floor, is the Parent Room is accessible from either side of the shopping centre. A long corridor joins one side of the horshoe-type layout of the centre to the other side…….so it doesn’t matter if you are checking out the fruit & veg at Martellis, or your browsing the books at the local bookshop, the Parent Room is just a few steps away. And it’s easy to find – a big plus.


Hanging down from the ceiling just inside either entrance to the shopping centre is the sign indicating where the toilets and Parent Room are located. Just follow the signs. Not any harder than that. The Parent Room is down the long straight corridor, to your right if you are coming from the Martellis/Gloria Jeans side of the centre, or on your left if coming from the Woolworths end.

Scungy sofa in the feeding cubicle

Little play/rest area for the kids

Access to the room is nice and easy – big silver button to press which opens the sliding door. Perfect for anyone with a pram in tow, or just an active child and loads of shopping. While us mums can do everything, we don’t always have that extra hand we need to open yet another door. Push button auto slide doors are  fabulous.

Inside the room, it feels nice and has the basics you need. But it is small  and the feeding area, particularly, needs some major help.
The sole feeding cubicle is tucked away in a corner of the room, with privacy provided but a not-quite-long-enough red curtain. With some maneouvering you can fit a pram in there, but it may require a 3 point turn. The couch is pretty scungy. It’s an old foam fold out sofa that must have had better days. It’s badly stained and did not inspire me at all to sit down and test it for comfort – not without wanting to make sure the seat had been thoroughly steam cleaned and stain-removal done. BYO extra rug to put on the couch if you are going to have a seat to feed your little one. Or just make sure you have packed extra anti-bacterial hand gel.

The little play area for toddlers is pretty good. It’s simple. A set of table and chairs, plus a wall mounted activity centre (which has all it’s pieces intact – a Christmas miracle!!) can keep even active little people occupied for a while. I usually have some crayons and a notebook in the nappy bag, so this is the perfect place to get them out so both you and your little ones can have a bit of downtime away from the stores.

Two change bays, nappy bins under the bench

Microwave at the end of the change bench

The nappy change area is pretty good. A long bench against the left side of the room as you walk in. Two padded nappy change mats are provided, with a sink in between them. Soap dispenser is above the sink, paper towel is at the end of the bench on the wall closest to the door. Nappy bins are conveniently located underneath the bench in pull-out cupboards.

There is a negative to this space, and that’s having the microwave at the other end of the change bench. No other sink available. This isn’t very good in terms of hygiene, yet it seems all too common among many Parent Rooms. Having to prep food and change nappies on the one bench, and share the one sink….is not my idea of a healthy outing.

Matching adult and child size toilets – clean and tidy

Finally there is the toilets. Matching adult and child size loos, with matching sinks. On this visit it was really clean and tidy, which was great considering how busy the place was. 

So that’s it really. It’s a good little Parent Room to visit if your out Cherrybrook way. Go check it out and let me know what you think. I’ll be out there again for sure, but I just have to come up with some kind of distraction to get past those kiddy-rides without incident.