How can I create a safe play space for my baby once they’re moving?

Every stage with your baby is joyful and challenging for very different reasons! Each stage comes with new challenges to face and one of the biggest ones can be once they’re on the move.

A great way of manging this is to introduce a ‘yes space’, which is a safe place your baby can play and explore freely. As much as it would be great to give your little one free reign of the house to explore, it’s not safe without constant supervision and you will find yourself repeatedly saying ‘no’ or moving them back from things that aren’t safe for them to touch. If we introduce a yes space, however, then we can allow our babies to be free to explore knowing that we won’t have to stop them and interrupt their curious little minds. This is a great for them to develop independent play skills as they explore the world around them in a safe way.

A yes space when your baby is little and first moving could be a simple play pen with a few toys or objects in there for them to explore. As they grow, this could be expanded to a large area within your room that is sectioned off with some safe furniture or a baby style gate to create a sectioned off area. Ideally the yes space would be as large as you have the space to create it to allow for optimum free exploration and discovery. Repetition is key for young children so don’t feel like you need to update what is in the yes space regularly; however you can also introduce some toy rotation once you feel your baby appears a bit disengaged with the items in the space.

Toy rotation is where you store most of your baby’s toys in one place and rotate / switch up regularly what they have access to play with. It’s a great way to ensure a variety of toys are played with and can mean they’re not too overwhelmed with too many toys out at once.

In a yes space you want to aim for a mixture of toy types and ensure that there are no little bits that could become a choking risk. Then pop your baby in and allow them to freely explore on the move themselves!