What You Should Know About Carseat Harness Safety & Winter Coats

As is always the way when the colder weather strikes, the debate about children wearing thick winter jackets or snowsuits in carseats rears its head. To me, there’s no debate about it – a simple don’t do it is all that’s needed, but I’ll explain why here.

It’s obvious when you think about it, that if the child is wearing a thickly padded winter jacket or snowsuit then you won’t be able to tension the harness correctly. In the event of an impact the child then has further to travel forward before the harness stops them, which in turn increases the chances of serious internal injuries / neck and spinal injuries. A carseat harness doesn’t tension the same way as a 3 point seatbelt in the vehicle does so you want to make sure it’s tensioned properly before you set off (a maximum of 2 finger gap between the breastbone and the harness is the recommendation for correct tension) Once the child moves up into a high back booster seat and is using the 3 point seatbelt, this isn’t so much of an issue, as in an impact the seatbelt tension would lock and prevent the child moving forward too far (the same as it works on an adult using the seatbelt)

A lot of infant carrier carseats have cosy-toes available as accessories for the cold weather. I used one for J in his CabrioFix when he was a baby. It goes into the empty carseat, then you put the child in and do up the harness correctly, then zip up the cosy-toes on the outside of the harness. This ensures baby is safely harnessed in the carseat and keeps them lovely and snuggly warm.

Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix Footmuff

Also remember that when you’re in the car, you have the car heating. I don’t tend to wear my coat when I’m driving as I find it restrictive – so I know the vehicle temperature is warm enough that any children travelling with me won’t be freezing cold anyway. Obviously younger babies do need to be kept warmer than an adult, so it’s a good idea to layer them up, but don’t bundle them up for arctic conditions when you’re in the car, it’s unnecessary and will cause them to overheat.

Once J was too big for his CabrioFix carseat and moved up to using the Opal, there wasn’t a cosy-toes / Footmuff option available, so I used blankets over the top of the harness instead. This became more difficult as he got older, since he’d insist on having his hands free for playing with whatever toys he’d brought with him or being able to have a drink or snack while we were driving. I discovered Snuggie Blankies were the best thing ever – gorgeous soft fleecy blankets with sleeves in, you know the ones designed to sit on the sofa wearing on a chilly evening? J was given one for Christmas with his favourite Disney Pixar Cars characters on, and it became my cold-weather go-to for when he was in the carseat as I could tension the harness with him in normal indoor clothes and then put the blankie over the top of the harness, and put his arms through the sleeves so he had no need to shrug it off in order to eat / drink / play. He’s in a high back booster seat now, so it isn’t so much of a concern but I still have that blankie in the car just in case. It’s also helpful if he falls asleep in the car, because I can scoop him into my arms and put it around him to carry him into the house without getting too child (you know you feel the cold more when you’re half asleep) Also a friend told me about a company called Snunkie who make bespoke cosy-toes for pushchairs – I got one for our pushchair, but then also discovered it could be fitted to the carseat as well, using the harness hooks to attach the loops that would normally be around the pushchair chassis and stop it dropping off.

Maxi-Cosi Opal carseat with
Snunkie cosy toes

I can see why people think it’s a faff, but really it only takes a couple of seconds to take off a jacket before putting the child in the carseat and put it back on again when you reach your destination. You don’t have to spend a fortune on the official cosy-toes either, or fancy specially-designed carseat blankets – a normal blanket is fine, or a snuggie blankie as I found, or even just put their winter jacket on backwards once they’re in the carseat harness. At the end of the day though my argument is simple – sure, it may take a couple of extra seconds to remove / put on the jacket before and after every journey, and it might disturb your child if they’ve fallen asleep, but really what amount of time is worth it to potentially prevent them being killed if you crash? The reality is that people find too many excuses for it being inconvenient and taking too long because they quite simply do not have the common sense to see the most serious potential outcome of the child not being correctly harnessed in. Think about it. It’s the same as taking the time to make sure the carseat fits your vehicle properly and is correctly fitted in the first place – this is your child’s life. Sure, they might be lucky and you might have an accident and they might be fine – but are you willing to take that risk? I know I’m not.

Be safe people, and take care of the little ones in your life,

Love,

Mummy P

x x x x

These Boots Are Made For Walking

The other day I was scrolling through Twitter and I saw a post from a mummy blogger that I follow about never owning Uggs before, but due to the current weather and her ankles being chilly on the school run she was about to cave in and get some.

I hate Uggs with a passion. Don’t get me wrong, I used to own a pair of the same style boots (not official Uggs, because who can afford those without taking out a mortgage) but I found they made me walk very flat-footed which in turn lead to foot and back pains. I didn’t realise how bad it was until one day I noticed the soles had worn at a strange angle, and when I stopped wearing them and my foot and back pain improved dramatically, I decided not to buy another pair again, whether or not they were warm and cosy.

That was about five years ago. When I next needed new winter boots, I popped into town and found my nearest Shoe Zone store. There I found a gorgeous pair of padded snow boots with fake fur trim, under twenty quid, and when I tried them on I was thrilled to find they easily fitted (I’ve quite thick ankles – more like cankles really – and very often boots are too tight) I wore them to death (quite literally – the zipper grip fell off and the sole wore through) but I got a good lot of wear out of them before they fell apart. In fact it was next winter, and I was so impressed with them I went back to Shoe Zone and got another pair for that winter.

The same thing has happened since. This year I was late in the year buying them – it was the end of November when I went into town and got my snow boots – but they’re so comfy and warm and such a bargain price I don’t mind replacing them after a year. It’s a year of good use, don’t get me wrong – it’s not like I’m only wearing them a couple of times. You’ve also got to bear in mind they cost less than £20 a pair – for the amount of wear I get out of them it’s so worth it. I’ve not got very many pairs of shoes / boots, so once it’s no longer flip flop and ballet slipper weather I’m in my boots until the next time the flip flops and ballet slippers come out.

For Christmas, I got a lovely new handbag and a pair of shaggy boot style slippers – also from Shoe Zone. Yesterday I went into town to get a replacement pair of boots for my work ones which, after many, many years service finally gave it up the other week – and guess what? I found a fantastic pair in Shoe Zone. They fit well, they’re just what I wanted and they don’t cost a fortune.

So when I saw that Tweet about buying Uggs, I told my fellow blogger not to bother – Get some snow boots from @Shoezone, I Tweeted in reply – Miles cheaper and better looking than Uggs. She wrote back saying she was going to have a look – Shoe Zone Tweeted me their appreciation – and suddenly I started realising just how much I had from the shop! As well as my handbag, my slippers, my snow boots and my biker boots, my several pairs of ballet slippers that will be making a come-back in the better weather and my old faithful sparkly flip flops are also from Shoe Zone!

I did Tweet them to say that while I’m not on commission, I believe I should be, since I am literally a walking advert for them … They’ve yet to respond to that! Maybe if they see this I might get next year’s snow boots at a discount … or a new pair of ballet slippers for the better weather!

My comfy feet and I are off now to put J to bed. Have a good evening everyone!

Love,

Mummy P

X X X

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Today has been a pretty rough day with J not being well. I didn’t sleep well last night and have been running around after him all day when all I really wanted to do after the last couple of crazy weeks was relax a bit. But that couldn’t be helped, because J needed me and that’s what the job description entails.

Anyway due to him being unwell I have piles and piles of washing to be done, and nowhere to hang it. All my life I’ve coped with hanging washing to dry – at my parents house they had long lines in the kitchen and here we have floor standing airers – and I’ve always coped. However never before have I dealt with a 4 yr old suffering extreme d&v.

By the time Daddy P got home from work the third washload of the day was in the machine. Bedding and towels covered both airers and are hanging over doors all round the house. I have two of those things with loads of pegs on that you’re meant to use for socks, and I’m using them to hang pillowcases. Over the curtain poles there are pairs of pyjamas and pants. I still had piles more washing to get through, a bag of washing done and needing to be hung up and a load in the machine. I was stumped what I was going to do about getting it all dry. (and quickly enough as I’d run out of bedding for J)

I posted a status on Facebook to air my frustration and thought no more of it – the next thing I know I’ve got not one but two offers from very lovely ladies who live locally to me offering me use of their tumble drier to help me out, and a private message from one lovely lady saying there was a tumble drier sitting unused in her garage that I could have cheap if it would be helpful. I love how really good friends will come up with solutions like that when you’re really stuck. To make matters even better, her husband even offered to drop it off – love him, he only turned up with it within twenty minutes! I was thinking yeah drop it off tomorrow, but she said no it’ll be tonight, then the next thing was she messaged me saying oh he’s just left! Awesome or what!

So here we are thanks to my lovely friends my evening is less laundry hanging around the house and more clean, warm, dry laundry than you can shake a stick at, and stacks of options even if J’s illness does continue for the next couple of days. We made his bed up earlier on with fresh sheets, I have two sets now on standby, plus pyjamas and at the rate I’m going I might even end up finishing all the washing some time before Christmas 2015! (* maybe!)

Here's to lovely friends!

Off now to make a hot chocolate before bed. Goodnight, all!

Love,

Mummy P

x x x

Sick Day

Today should have been my first chance to relax since before Christmas.

It should have been J’s first day back to school and my first day off co-ordinating. I planned to do a big online shop for delivery on Wednesday and some light housework but generally having a bit of a relaxing day.

Instead I was woken shortly after 3am with J climbing into bed next to Daddy P and complaining he had a tummy ache. He snuggled in Daddy P’s arms and we started drifting back to sleep – the next thing I know he’s bolt upright and being sick. Very sick. In the bed.

We cleaned him up, stripped and remade the bed, and around 3.40am we settled back down again. At four he was awake again, being sick again. The same happened every half hour to hour all through til Daddy P got up this morning to go to work. After he left, within half an hour J was sick again three more times, he was very pale and running a temperature. He couldn’t even hold down water. I phoned the school and left a message letting them know that he wouldn’t be in due to the sickness. We cuddled up in my bed and went back to sleep.

At 10 we woke again and J hadn’t been sick again, so we came downstairs and I made him a ‘nest’ on the sofa with a double duvet and a pillow. He cuddled up in it with his Tiger and watched Peter Rabbit. I brought him water and some plain toast but while he sipped at the water he didn’t eat any of the toast.

Mummy's poor little soldier watching Peter Rabbit 

Over the course of the day my poor little soldier seemed to perk up at lunchtime but then things quickly went wrong when his poorly tummy went the other way and we went through four pairs of pyjamas within an hour and a half.

Daddy P brought a bottle of Lucozade home for him and he’s feeling a lot better now – no disasters for the last couple of hours, the colour has returned to him and he’s cooled down to a normal temperature again. I’m so glad, because it’s been very strange today having him being so quiet and still all day! (Very out of character!) On the other side though, the school have a policy where if the kids have had d&v they have to stay off school for 48 hours after the last instance of illness. On this basis the soonest he can go back is Friday, and that’s if he’s OK from now on. He’s had some plain toast, more water and some Lucozade now and so far he’s been fine. I hope for all our sakes he sleeps well tonight, we’re all shuffling around like the living dead today and poor Daddy P had to go to work (mind you he did have a long nap on the sofa last night before we went to bed anyway!)

At least I’m not working tomorrow, and if J is feeling better we’ve got the shopping delivery to sort out and unpack (he loves helping with that) There’s also still a huge amount of laundry to do, and if he’s feeling that much better he can help me with doing some housework. He’s already asked Daddy P if they can take down the Christmas decorations which is a sure sign he’s feeling better! So hopefully they’ll do that tonight and tomorrow we can start getting the house back to ‘normal’ (ha!) after Christmas.

Well I think it’s time to enjoy a moment of relaxation with my frothy cappuccino and a biscuit while I continue watching Back to the Future for the five hundred thousandth time! (* approx.)

Hope your first week back to ‘normal’ after Christmas and New Year madness has been more successful than mine has so far!

Love,

Mummy P

x x x

A Post About Christmas

Christmas is a funny time of year.

As a child, I had the most magical Christmases ever. The anticipation, the build up, the big day itself and even the come-down afterwards was one brilliant moment as far as I was concerned.

For a long time, I was the youngest child in the family. I had cousins, but those I saw over Christmas were older than me. I was eight when my brother was born and he added the sparkle that had started to fade for me and it was magical again. When he was ten, my cousin had her son, and again the presence of a child in the family made it magical once again.

Our Christmases were simple, but special. It was an event always held at my grandparents’ house. In the weeks leading up every time we’d visit you’d see more evidence of Christmas approaching – decorations that started off in the hallways and then into the rarely used dining room and the even more rarely used front room, where the tree would be on top of the bureau, the same tree and decorations as the ones my mum and her siblings had used, delicate glass baubles in ancient cardboard boxes.

Either the weekend before Christmas, or on Christmas Eve, we’d go round to Nan and Grandad’s house with the presents. Nan would put them all in the front room, and on Christmas Eve before she went to bed she would put everyone’s presents into piles. A magical moment for me as a kid was walking into that room first on Christmas morning and seeing all those piles of presents. We had our special spots in the room for our gifts to be piled, and in the middle of the room my granddad would put two bin bags for all the rubbish.

First thing on Christmas morning, my brother and I would open our Father Christmas presents in our mum and dads room. Then we’d get washed and dressed in our best outfits, and head over to Nan and Grandad’s house. Breakfast would be coffee and bacon sandwiches for the grown ups, orange juice and bacon sandwich for us kids. My mum has two sisters and a brother, and when I was young they’d all head to Nan and Grandad’s house for Christmas Day. Her brother would come with his wife and their son, whose 8 years older than me; one sister would come with her husband, the other sister with her three children. Then there’d be me, and later on my brother, plus mum and, when he wasn’t working, dad (he normally was working though! He was a frontline ambulance technician when I was a child)

After breakfast we’d go into the front room. It was a magical moment for me as a child. We all went to our piles of presents and wait til everyone was in there and ready. Then we’d start, a frenzy of unwrapping and thank you’s and hugging and kissing until every last present in the pile was open. Usually at that point everyone would leave in their own cars to go to the church service at the same church where my grandparents, parents and brother got married, which was next to elderly residential flats where my great grandmother lived. After church we’d go and pile into her tiny one room flat to visit with her and my great aunt, who lived in the opposite flat.

Back at home while we’d all been out my nan would have tidied up the front room and dinner would be ready when we got back after visiting with my great grandmother and great aunt. Two dining tables would be pushed together in the dining room and we’d all sit round to eat. After dinner and tidying up we’d relax and play with our Christmas gifts. The family grew, and the family shrank over years, but we continued with our tradition until I was an adult.

After that, when both my nan and granddad had passed away, the family separated out. By then I was with Daddy P, so we divided our Christmastime between my family and his, but with no children and no traditions it seemed to lack a certain sparkle and wasn’t as special as I always remember it being.

J's 1st Christmas

Then came the first Christmas with J, in 2010 – he was only four months old but his presence added something that had been missing from Christmas for some time. In 2011 we celebrated my nephew’s first Christmas and in 2014 we celebrated my niece’s first. The presence of children in a family definitely bring back that Christmas sparkle for me. Seeing them enjoy the magic of it all and helping create memories for them to treasure when they’re older; that’s what Christmas is all about for me. As J gets older it becomes more magical – now he’s four he gets thoroughly caught up in the magic of Father Christmas, and elves, the decorations and the sparkling lights, the buying of gifts for others and receiving gifts himself.

It does make me wistful for people no longer here, though. It makes me miss my grandparents even more because Christmas was always a time I remember spending with them. I remember the smell of the cigars my uncle used to smoke in the front room after dinner, the way nan used to be wearing her apron over the top of her new outfit all day long because she was in and out of the kitchen preparing a vast array of food for every hour of the day (you always left her house feeling a dress size larger than when you’d gone in!)

Having said that, isn’t it what life is all about? Having wonderful memories of your own childhood to reminisce about while creating memories for your children? There’s still so many times I see things and think nan would like that, or granddad would, or my uncle, or my great grandmother or my great aunt, but now there’s also things I see that make me think J would like that, or my nephew would, or my niece would. 

As these three grow up I’d love them to enjoy a magical time every Christmas, and will be trying to make sure they each have wonderful memories too. 

J with my nephew A
My niece R

Feeling Festive

I adore Christmas – even more so now J is at an age where he is really enjoying it, too.

I like to try and do as many Christmassy activities as I can with him. These days are the memories for him for when he’s older. I want him to have great Christmas memories like I do.

On Friday 28^th November was the Christmas Lights Turn On in town. My mum came up and we collected J from school and picked up fish & chips on the way home. We got home, got changed and ate dinner, then bundled up and headed into town. There was a night market, Father Christmas in his grotto, churches were open showcasing nativity displays and offering hot chocolate to visitors, there was a small fairground for younger children and Christmas songs playing. After the lights were turned on the walk home was punctuated with spotting the lights all around town.

In the poundshop while out shopping the following week, I found a kit for making sparkly angels. At home J and I had a fantastic time doing them. After we’d done them, we started on J’s homework for that weekend – making snowflakes. After we’d cut out the snowflakes we decorated them with glue and leftover glitter from the sparkly angels. Glitter everywhere – much fun.

One day at school, J and his class decorated gingerbread men. J was eating his on the way home and got as far as just having the legs left and doing the gingerbread song about “run, run, as fast as you can”. He then went to pop the legs in his mouth and missed, dropping them on the pavement! Disaster. As you can imagine, he created quite a fuss of epic proportions about that, so I pacified him by saying we’d make more gingerbread at home. I’d never made gingerbread before, but we’ve got a really good baking book, and I found an easy recipe to follow. Our first batch of gingerbread was a success and J was absolutely thrilled to bits that we’d done it.

On Saturday 6^th December, Father Christmas visited the local garden centre with two of his famous reindeer – Dancer and Prancer. J and I went along to say hello. I’d never met reindeer before in such close quarters either – I was as excited as the kids to get to stroke Prancer’s nose when she came over to me for  a bit of carrot! Dancer was obviously exhausted – all danced out by the time we arrived perhaps, as it was toward the end of the afternoon.

After I’d got some more Christmas presents, I spent Tuesday wrapping presents while J was at school and that evening Daddy P and I continued on the task. I love wrapping presents – I put on some Christmas music, chuck a splash of Baileys into my hot chocolate and away I go. This year I even treated myself to a sticky tape dispenser, to the dismay of my husband, but to my great delight.

His school participated in Save The Children Christmas Jumper day so I asked him what jumper he’d like for it. He requested a pale blue Olaf jumper – I thought he was being far too exact and would be disappointed by whatever I managed to find him, but I found exactly what he was after on E-Bay and happily clicked ‘Order’. As part of the fundraising, the school also invited parents to come for Christmas dinner and wear a Christmas jumper too. Grandma Parker and myself both went along, both buying and wearing a Christmas jumper specially! (We’re both planning to wear them at Christmas, too, and we know that Daddy P and Grandad P are utterly thrilled by this news)

Today my mum and dad are coming up for the day and we’re heading out for a meal with them to celebrate Dad’s birthday (which is on the 23^rd, but Daddy P and I won’t both see my dad again before then) so we’re booked into a local restaurant for a ‘festive’ menu at lunchtime. It’s been a few weeks since I saw my dad, so I’m really looking forward to it.

So far we’re having a very lovely festive time … Hope you all are too!

Love,

Mummy P

X x x x x

Shiny New Kitchen Appliance!

A few years ago, my parents were kind enough to get Daddy P and I a second hand dishwasher. It did well and served us faithfully for five or six years until without warning one day it was loaded and switched on and nothing happened. My cousin spoke to Daddy P over Skype and they located the manufacturing date to see if spare parts could be ordered for it and we discovered that dishwasher was 20 years old. No wonder it had finally given up. Spares weren’t in vast supply (unsurprisingly!) and I was resigned to washing up forever by hand, so I brought a pair of pink washing up gloves, tuned the radio in and danced my way through hours of washing up on a daily basis.

On Black Friday, on a whim, I happened to look up dishwashers from several retailers who were having special sale prices. Lots of them were still far too expensive, even with the Black Friday discounts, but one from Curry’s caught my eye and with the discount it was a very good deal even with delivery and installation on top.

On the website initially it showed delivery available for next day, so I selected that. After the sale was completed it said next day delivery was not possible as it was a 2 person delivery / installation (I would have thought with a dishwasher that would flag up anyway, before the delivery has already been chosen for next day and order is completed?) I had a selection of alternative delivery dates – I wasn’t fussed in the slightest so I clicked the first three showing available. I received an automated email saying that I would receive confirmation of delivery date by email soon. Nothing arrived.

I realised after ordering that I had an appointment which I couldn’t avoid which conflicted with one of the proposed delivery dates. I e-mailed customer services at Curry’s apologising about that and asking them to ensure delivery did not happen that day, but delivery any other day was fine. It took four days for a reply to arrive (after the date of the confliction anyway) and at that point the customer service guy advised that delivery was showing as booked for another date (obviously) but then I was confused by the date he gave me, as it wasn’t a date I thought had been optional when I’d made the order. It wasn’t an inconvenient date, but it meant that delivery would not be for 11 days after I’d made the order, which I felt was quite a long time. To date I have not received a reply back from the customer care team at Curry’s following my response to their initial e-mail.

On Tuesday morning I received a text message advising that my time slot for delivery was between 07:35 and 11:35. I was up and dressed and trying to get J sorted out when I had a missed call from a mobile number on my phone. When I rang back I was cut off, so I checked out the front window and saw the Know How van parked outside, so I dashed down and found one of the delivery guys on the doorstep. He was polite, wasn’t phased at all by the fact that both dogs were going absolutely nuts howling, barking and screaming. I put Holly in her cage in the kitchen and shut Buddy in the front room with the gates, and we discussed whether it would be easier to bring the dishwasher straight down the hallway through the house or come in down the alleyway at the side and through the back gate into the utility room directly. Due to the tight corner and the step, the delivery guys agreed straight through the house was the best option.

I never like leaving people alone in my house in that kind of situation. It makes me feel a bit weird. But what option did I have, but to leave him removing the old dishwasher from the space while I ran back upstairs to carry on sorting out J for school. A couple of minutes later, there was another knock at the door – I went and opened it and delivery man number 2 said hello. He came into the house and the first guy had already got the old dishwasher disconnected and ready to go – the two of them walked it through the house, and off to the van. Then the shiny new black one came in – I had to rush back off upstairs – and finished getting J ready. I heard the front door open and shut and saw delivery man number 2 was walking down the path to the van with a load of packaging stuff. A couple of minutes later I glanced out of the window again and he’d turned the van round ready to go. Then the first guy called me from downstairs, and I went down and found him ready to leave. He said he’d tested it and all was working fine, advised me to read and follow set up guidelines (adding rinse aid and salt before first use etc) and contact them if there were any issues. He asked if I had any questions, confirmed they’d taken my old dishwasher and the packaging for the new one and then he asked if it was OK to pet Buddy!

Now bear in mind, this bonkers dog had been bouncing around the front room howling, barking and screaming from the time the delivery truck had pulled into sight in the road outside, the whole time this guy had been in the house and as we’d stood talking at the front door, Buddy was separated from us by a baby gate so you could see him leaping all over the sofas and circling the room as he continued his deafening song. I looked at the delivery guy in disbelief. “Yeah, he’s fine to pet,” I said quickly. Buddy immediately shut up with a good ear scratch. “I love dogs,” The delivery guy said, “He’s a beauty.” I gathered my jaw up from the floor and managed to smile at him. “I like him more when he’s shouting less,” I said.

J and I left for school two minutes later, they’d already gone, no hanging around there! I was absolutely amazed at how quickly they’d got it sorted – and the only thing that took the two of them was bringing the new one into the house and taking the old one out, the fitting etc was all done by one. In total, they arrived at 08:07 and they left at 08:28. J and I were at school at normal time, and there was me worrying about being late!

When I got home I had a cup of tea before I started fiddling with the dishwasher, and I read the User Manual like a good customer. Our old dishwasher I never learned how to do certain things like putting the salt in and I feel that’s ridiculous as I’m sure it’s fairly standard in any dishwasher, but having never done it before I didn’t know. So I wanted to know about this dishwasher, and after reading the User Manual I managed to follow the set up guidelines and get it all organised within half an hour.

Go to product on website

I’m not daft – I did read the reviews before making the purchase – and one thing people had commented upon was not having enough room for larger dinner plates on the bottom rack due to the low position of the top rack. However I had also read that the top rack was height adjustable in the info about the product on the advert. I risked it – my dinner plates are huge. There was no way they would fit in the bottom rack with the top rack on the lower position. The instructions for changing the height aren’t exactly full and easy to understand but it provides enough information for a person to work it would and adjust. I managed it! After putting the top rack in the higher position there is just enough space for the arm to move before the tops of my dinner plates. If my dinner plates fit, I can confidently say that most would. You’d just need to adjust the top rack to do it.

I added the salt and the rinse aid and followed the set up guide by putting water into the salt compartment to run the dishwasher for the first time without any washing up in it. Another comment I’d seen on reviews was that it was really loud. Since the dishwasher lives in the utility room anyway, noise isn’t something that really bothers me. If I’m in the front room watching TV or upstairs I can’t hear a dishwasher running. I don’t know what volume these reviewers were expecting – especially as it states on the product info the noise level produced – but while it’s not silent, I would say it’s about average, not loud at all. When the cycle ends, the dishwasher beeps a few times – this beep is loud, and was clearly heard by me when I was upstairs in the front bedroom at the furthest point in the house away from the location of the dishwasher. If this went off at night it would probably disturb me, and the dogs, but probably not Daddy P or J unless they weren’t properly asleep anyway. I don’t know if it beeps intermittently once it’s finished until you open it, but as I heard it yesterday I came downstairs and opened it. It does beep if it is turned on and the door is not properly shut which is fine, until you’re loading things into it and it gets a bit annoying. I turned off the power while I was loading it!

I like the additional wiring in the racks to move around and make the best set up for what washing up you have – it can provide flat spaces if needed, or angled ones as required. The cutlery basket holes are a variety of shapes and sizes to try and accommodate a wide range of cutlery styles but unfortunately my sharp knives (which I put in handle-up) do not fit in there well as the handle is too large to fit in the gaps and this leaves the knife off balance / top heavy.

Another one of the negatives listed on the product reviews is that the bottom rack doesn’t stay out because the dishwasher door doesn’t open completely flat. No, the dishwasher door doesn’t lie completely flat, but it’s only a couple of degrees off it so the bottom rack may not stay the whole way out but it doesn’t roll the whole way back in, either – it moves in by an inch or two maybe. If you leave the top rack in, you can access all of the bottom rack without needing to pull the rack out again. Once you have some weight in the rack it stays more firmly in place though I did find I needed to be careful to roll the rack back into the body of the dishwasher properly as on one side the wheels pop off the runner easily.

The dishwasher has a delay cycle facility you can set to delay it going on by 3, 6 or 9 hours – my mum uses this function on her dishwasher for it to go on overnight, which I would do if the dishwasher made so much noise I couldn’t cope with it being on while I was downstairs, or if it was cheaper for me to run it overnight, but it doesn’t affect me either way so I won’t worry about that, but it’s a nice added feature. It offers Eco Mode, Intensive, Normal, 1Hr, Rapid and 3 in 1 wash cycles, all of which you can select and then use the ½ load button if required.

By far my favourite addition on the panel of buttons is the childlock option. You set the childlock on and whatever buttons get pushed after that just get ignored by the dishwasher. Since I’ve a four year old who LOVES fiddling with all things button related (especially with flashing red lights and beeping going on) this is a big bonus for me. It’s easy to set but I did find getting it right took a couple of attempts – You have to press two buttons at once, one of those buttons being the program selection, so I kept changing the program selection just before the childlock activated and then having to undo the childlock to change the program back! I need more co-ordination!

It did a washload yesterday and I was pleased with how things came out, using the Eco Mode program and it was quite full. The only thing was the deeper bottoms of some mugs still had water in them where the angle wasn’t quite enough for the water to run off over the depth of the lip. Not a massive deal really. Everything was clean and with the exception of the bottoms of those mugs everything was rinsed.

All in all, so far I am pleased with this dishwasher. It was a very good price, though the customer care could have been vastly improved with better contact, the text message was received with my time slot being very accurate, the delivery guys were polite, professional and quick, and so far the dishwasher has done what I want it to do. The instructions could be clearer for adjusting the top rack but it’s quite obvious once you think about it and for the cost in comparison to other products I think this is a decent product of the quality you would expect for an own-brand item vs brand name. You get various bits included – salt funnel, scoops for detergent etc – probably stuff you get as standard with a new dishwasher, but this is the first time I’ve had one from new!

Impressed with Curry’s product and the pricing, less impressed with their so-called customer ‘care’. Impressed with Know How’s delivery guys.

Good overall experience for me!

Love,

Mummy P

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