For me, Adam starting nursery sparked the beginning of many negative feelings. Feelings of guilt, pain, loneliness and extreme anxiety. Not only was I having to leave my child for the first time since giving birth but I was going to have to entrust his care with complete strangers. It took a while to settle into the idea and it definitely took both myself and Adam quite a while to adjust.
Once my date for returning to work was set and we’d found a nursery that was convenient and could meet our needs, I began preparing for Adam’s first day. I bought him a little rucksack that he would take with him everyday and invested in a new jacket as he started in the winter months and I knew he’d be cold. I separated his clothes into ‘home’ piles and ‘nursery’ piles knowing full well that he’d probably get a bit mucky in nursery and therefore I wouldn’t send him in his best clothes but I also ordered some personalised name stickers to put on all his clothes and shoes so that they wouldn’t get lost. I wanted him to always be in his own clothes and the thought of him wearing scraps from the lost property box actually made me anxious just thinking about it.
So you can imagine I was horrified when I realised one day that Adam had come home in somebody else’s clothes!! And when the nursery did eventually find his ones the labels had fallen off so they didn’t know they were his, I’d just picked them out of the lost property box. Then after his brand new jacket went missing I knew the name labels just weren’t serving their purpose!
I’d resorted to scribbling his name inside his clothes with a pen but even that would wash off after one or two washes. Feeling like all hope was lost I discovered Stamptastic and was delighted to be sent a Personalised Name Stamp and ink pad as it was such a genius and innovative idea. I don’t know why I’d wasted my time with fiddly little sticky labels which either came off in the wash or didn’t even make it that far and fell off in the playground!
I loved that I could personalise his stamper with the font I liked and add a little picture next to his name with his favourite things. Originally I had my eye on the little cat Icon as Adam adores cats but eventually I settled on the little car as he’s always loved cars. Truth be told I could probably have spent hours designing my name stamp because they are just so many different fonts, icons and characters to choose from but I knew cars would be a hit. I couldn’t believe how easy their website was to navigate and there was even an option to preview the stamp with my chosen font and icons to make sure it all fit on the stamp nicely.
Once I'd placed my order I couldn’t wait for it to arrive and Stamptastic didn’t disappoint. Delivery was super speedy and everything came so well packaged. The name stamp itself was wrapped in paper to protect it and the ink pad even came in it’s own little plastic bag to help prevent the ink from drying out. From first use I instantly fell in love with how easy it was to just stamp and go and now that I’ve been using the stamp for a while I can report back on just how well the clothes wash too. Adam’s nursery clothes get washed after just one wear as he usually comes back either covered in paint and glitter or his lunch and although I was expecting the ink on his labels to have at least faded I was shocked to see that his clothes came out just as the day I’d stamped them. The name is still clearly visible on the labels and they must have been washed at least six or seven times by now.
I can honestly say I’ve not been this impressed by a product and brand in a very long time and I’ve been raving about them to everybody I meet. I know of a few friends that have placed orders too and I just wish I’d found out about them sooner. If, like me, you’re finding the transition into starting nursery emotional, take one less worry out of preparing yourself and your little one and invest in a Stampastic name stamp. I can promise you that you wont regret it.
You can follow Syrah J on instagram here
