Play Pens

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woodenpotty

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This was triggered by a parallel post in regard to child harnesses. I'm 71 and just about everyone used a play pen for their children. And today I don't see them. Do you have memories of being in or seeing in use play pens? And about what era was it? I guess I'm trying to also see when they disappeared. And as long as I'm asking questions; will people born in the 21st century have AB desires for a play pen?
 
I had one. A big square one. My mom used to put me in it when we were outside in the yard and lay a sheet across the top to block some of the sun and keep the bugs off of me. XD It had those mesh sides, so the flies and stuff couldn't get in through those either.

I recall others having ones with the wooden bars, but that they were swiftly getting rid of them because of kids being strangled because they put their heads through the openings. :p And then they changed how they folded up and killed a couple of babies. ( https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2001/r...play-yardscribsbaby-trend-launches-new-effort <-Baby died in 2001 because they were using a product that was recalled in 1995.)

Mostly now you just see 'play yards', those little plastic fences that you can set up where-ever you like. The closest things I've seen to a play pen now are those tiny little travel 'cribs', that are both a crib and changing table. But they're really not big enough for much else. :p

If you want memories of what mine looked like, I don't recall much.

I think it was similar to this one: playpen.jpg

Maybe not that exact color/pattern, but I know it was built like that. The sides could still collapse on those, too, but with the mesh sides the baby might not suffocate before they were found. The trouble is that the more mobile the baby is, the more they try to escape. And eventually they get too heavy to try and climb the side and the hinges fail and down goes baby, usually pitched forward onto their poor noggins. If they're not locked right, they can just give away from the baby pulling themselves up on them to walk around.

And that's probably why we don't see a lot of those types of playpens still around. It's safer and easier just to block off part of the room and keep an eye on them. (Well, technically you were supposed to be keeping an eye on them in the playpen, but there you are with the lazy parenting or even the honest "I just stepped out to make a bottle!" stuff.)
 
I had one, they have pictures of me in it although I never remember being in it. I looked like I was having fun. I remember more my room. They had a locking screen door on it so that my mom could look in after me, keep me out from under foot and keep on doing her chores. I could always see her as well, I had the whole room and all my toys.
 
I'm pretty sure I was never in a playpen. At least, I don't remember one, and I've never seen pictures of myself in one or heard stories about it...I do, however, remember stories about how I would climb on any furniture possible, so I'm pretty sure if my parents had used one, that wouldn't have been an issue.

Funnily enough, just this morning I was thinking about how having a playpen turned ball pit would be super cool, cause I love ball pits. What do you guys think about getting like an inflatable pool with taller sides and filling it with balls? I think it would be awesome.
 
I know I had a playpen and didn’t really notice they were out of fashion until seeing this post and reflecting on it, when and if I ever have a child I think I will likely end up with a playpen for the living room who knows ? It did use to be a essential thing from what I remember in my early childhood and I was born in ‘91
 
Wait your 71 and using a computer? I gotta hand that one to you if that is the truth. Not easy to do for sure. Anyway to answer your question I have VIVID memories of being in a playpen (and photo evidence) at age 2 and 3 which for me was mid 90s. I also had a "rainbow zebra " pillow which I have yet to still identify what it was from...
 
I was born in the early 80s and my mother relied heavily on the playpen. I had one that had yellow vinyl with colorful flowers. She would put me in there with a bunch of my toys and I would be happy and safe for hours so she could still live her life without having to constantly stare at me.
Now it seems like they just have for the most part play yards. Those are like the pack and plays, small and crib like. Some people use them as playpens but they dont have the same room. My aunt was the first person that I saw with one of those that she brought to my Grandma's house when they slept over. I think back then it was called a port-a-crib and that was in the early 90s.
 
I learned to program in FORTRAN in 1964. It was main frame computers that were huge. You entered data by punch cards. 10,000 times more difficult than today.
 
woodenpotty said:
I learned to program in FORTRAN in 1964. It was main frame computers that were huge. You entered data by punch cards. 10,000 times more difficult than today.

My studies in computer language actually led me to learn some BASIC and QBASIC in my early computer years. (Although it is obsolete today, I find it more fun) and I actually made a small program that works exactly like a claw machine, and even has the ability to refill, play beeper, collect 'money' etc.

It was something fun, but I admit I always wanted to try one of those punch cards:graduate:
 
After the novelty of using a card punch wore off you would find it frustrating. A slip of a finger and the card was ruined. Cards had to be numbered because if they got out of order the program would crash. If they wore out, especially program cards which were used multiple times. you had to punch a new set. If bent, they would not run. They died off and other than a historical relationship, they died the death they deserved.
I also knew another language, COBOL. I became valuable in the late 1990s. As many business programs were written in COBOL and wouldn't run after 1999. We needed to keep programming tight because of limits on computers. Most programs stored only two digits for the year. So after 1999 or 99 in the program it would reset to 00. Then the year 2000 became older than 1999. Oops.
 
I had a playpen as a real baby/toddler in the late 1950's/early 1960's.
At age 4 when my youngest brother was born, my Mom still put me in the playpen to keep me safe and not wander.
Where I am living now, I have no room for a playpen to be an Adult Baby in.
 
I don't remember being in a playpen but I do remember my sister being in one. She is 5 years younger than I am. The playpen was made of wood.
 
I learned Fortran, Cobal and RPG back in the late 1970s.

When I was a baby, I had one of the wooden folding play pens. I remember it quite well.

As an AB, I’ve had one Graco made in the early 80s, and a Joovy Room2 now that my nanny puts me in occasionally. Both worked well without any problems.
 
I don't remember if either my brother or I were in playpens as babies, but I recall my half brother being in one. He'd be 11 or 12 by now. He was kept in a playpen during the day when he was younger but he liked to throw his toys out into the room then scream and cry to be let out. It was once of those with the mesh/netting walls and light frames. Soon enough he grew big enough to climb out of it on his own so it stopped working.
 
woodenpotty said:
I learned to program in FORTRAN in 1964. It was main frame computers that were huge. You entered data by punch cards. 10,000 times more difficult than today.

write(6,10)
10 format('I speak FORTRAN also. I prefer it to modern languages.')

I was stuck in a playpen until about the age of 4. I also had a crib that long. I think my father was very busy and my mother wanted to keep the last baby a baby as long as possible. It seems to have worked, because I am still 3 years old.
 
LilacCrinkle said:
Wait your 71 and using a computer? I gotta hand that one to you if that is the truth. Not easy to do for sure. Anyway to answer your question I have VIVID memories of being in a playpen (and photo evidence) at age 2 and 3 which for me was mid 90s. I also had a "rainbow zebra " pillow which I have yet to still identify what it was from...

yeah i played in a playpen sometimes untill i was 6
 
woodenpotty said:
will people born in the 21st century have AB desires for a play pen?
At least I don't have any desires to be in one or memories about one. If I have been in one I must been very very young but I guess no.

But back to computers, have you used those early Unixes developed by at&t etc.? :)
 
4.5 meg of cards

Here is 4.5 meg of punch cards. You can see how quickly you get drown in piles of cards. About 62,500 cards.
 

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