VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker review
The VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker is quite possibly the most annoying toy Maggie has ever had, however it’s also been an incredibly useful device to get her interested in walking and turning.
The walker is supposed to turn off after a couple of minutes of inactivity, but ours just keeps on chattering away if anyone’s around it. I think ours might have a button that’s hypersensitive and detects floor vibrations as if you’re not right next to the thing it does eventually shut off as advertised.
I think Maggie has figured out that this toy annoys me, whereas none of her other toys do, so she goes at it with a passion and loves every minute of it.
As a walker, this thing has problems. The baby size that’s going to walk behind it can easily flip it over on top of them when they fall, as I discovered when Maggie took a misstep and ended up not only going to the ground but getting whacked by the VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker.
Basically if you’ve got a wobbly baby it needs weight on the front to help them. That or you need to be behind your little walker the entire time. I’m going for the second option at the moment.
My VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker assembly fiasco
There are instructions I’m sure. I didn’t see any when I started. It’s very important to do the assembly in the following order: Legs, handle.
If you put the handle in first, due to the locking popouts, you will need a butter knife to press the popouts back in in order to get the handle out so you can put the legs in.
In other words, assemble this when you don’t need it and read the freaking instructions if you can locate them.
Say bye bye phone!
The phone that comes with the VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker will most likely be gone the first time you turn your head. There’s no cord to secure it to the board, and as far as I can tell the voice tells baby to chuck it as far as possible.
Baby, you have one duty – throw the phone away, your life will be filled with riches – VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker
No, kiss the phone goodbye. Seriously.
The front of the walker pops off so you can take the annoying part with you in the car. With no way to secure the phone you can imagine that it will end up along our nation’s great highways and in the parking lot of rest stops.
It’s a shame because the three other things that pop off the board are secured perfectly with what looks like paracord in a freaking phone-cord pigtail circlet. If you’re going to have something that looks like a phone cord on a toy that includes a phone, why wouldn’t you use that to secure the freaking phone handset.
Wait phone what?
It occurred to me when ITMama was playing with Maggie that she most likely had never seen a landline telephone, a headset, etc. I do start to wonder how dated these toys are and how a baby is supposed to associate something that looks like a banana for all intents and purposes with a phone, which for most these days is a black piece of glass and metal.
We’d been without a landline in the house since 2004 if I remember correctly and only last week due to some part of a Comcast deal ended up with a jack in the back of a cable modem that supplies a landline.
I don’t think I know anyone in my town with a landline, or a flip phone. That needs to be updated to be with the times. Black hunk of glass and metal that has a logo on the top. Bam. Can’t teach a baby about a phone that they’ve never seen.
The brakes on the toy go skid skid skid
There are two settings for the wheels, one is with brakes on, the other is not. The brakes slow the rear wheels from moving and allow your pre toddler to lean against the walker without it slipping away. Well, somewhat.
I think they probably work really well as brakes on a rubber mat, a mouse glue trap, or a carpet, but get them on anything slick or smooth and the plastic wheels just slide.
This can *probably* be remedied by putting some rubber bands around the back wheels, but I haven’t had a chance to test this out yet as I live in a mostly rubber bandless household.
Quiet and loud switch
There’s a quiet and loud switch. Or I should say a loud and louder switch. Baby’s right in front of the thing… I really wish this would drop down to whisper mode. Babies love everything… teach them to love it quietly.
Going to find speaker and see if I can’t quiet it a bit.
Wrap-up
I honestly feel like this is a slot machine training device with how it goes nonstop, blinks like crazy, and keeps encouraging the baby to play more. If they just got that casino sound (G over G#?) the thing would be complete.
While I am annoyed by the thing, Maggie loves it and it’s helping her get motivated to walk, scoot, move, etc.
It’s not perfect, but it is quite enjoyable to my baby, so I’ll get over my annoyance.
The VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker is available from Amazon for $29.96, or you can pay a hefty premium and get it in pink for 39.99 + 9.99 shipping. You could also do what we did and shop at overstock/fire sale/consignment. I believe ours ended up being $17.
