Anonymous wrote:Mine was afraid of it. She would sneak up to it and then run away. Once she turned it on by accident and ran faster than I thought an 18m old was capable of.

I find it's not that helpful unless you pick up all the toys and clutter and crap first.

Well, of course it's not; it's a vacuum. You can't vacuum over toys and clutter, robot or not.

I have one and an almost two year old, and it's set to run every night at 1am. When DD was smaller we blocked her off from the Roomba with strategic pack 'n play positioning; now she's big enough to know not to mess with it.

I like it because it makes us pick up the living room every night, even when we're tired, and I know that some cleaning is getting done between housecleaner visits. Some people are more neat than me and feel like it doesn't meet their standards, but my standard is "how long until someone else cleans this house?" so it's definitely an improvement. Get the one that self-empties into the base, we've only had to change the bag once in a year (no pets).

Love mine. I run it mostly when we aren't around. It saves a bunch of time because I was sweeping up small crumbs and dog hair daily before I got it,

I can’t remember what brand we have but we LOVE our robot vacuum. Kids are now 4.5 and 18 months but we’ve had it over over a year. DH, who is all about gadgets, insisted. I didn’t want it. I was so wrong! It is wonderful. We have it downstairs. It “lives” under the couch and runs every night. It is noisy and slow so it works best for us to run it while we sleep. DH is responsible for emptying the filter/storage compartment every couple of days. Sometimes I still have to sweep under the table after a particularly messy dinner, but most of the time I just leave crumbs or whatever for the vacuum to get later and spend my time on other things. LOVE it.

Ours love it - they pretend it's chasing them. It doesn't do a deep clean, but it's helpful just to keep things looking tidy.

Mine was afraid of it. She would sneak up to it and then run away. Once she turned it on by accident and ran faster than I thought an 18m old was capable of.

I find it's not that helpful unless you pick up all the toys and clutter and crap first.

My kid loved watching Roomba when he was two. We would sit him on the bed and he would watch it, enthralled and a little afraid. It acted as a great playpen in that respect. Now he’s four and likes pushing the buttons, so Roomba is always out of battery. YMMV.

Love puts (actually a Neato). But mostly for dog hair - my kids didn’t drop many crumbs, preferring instead to track kid, wet leaves, and spill things - all of which the roomba can’t handle.

Works great for dog hair though.

We’ve had roombas my kids’ entire lives and it’s never been a problem. They are great at picking up Cheerios

Anonymous wrote:I think roombas are much more useful for homes with pets, not necessarily children. They pick up a lot of the dust and dirt and hair that dogs bring in. Children are not that dirty. If I had a townhome I would take the other pp’s advice and get a lightweight dyson.

This makes me laugh.

My kids are definitely "that dirty". Despite frequent showers, they resemble Pigpen from Charlie Brown.

Yeah I think they help if your dog sheds a ton. But they are not great at getting all the dirt in a way that avoids having to vacume AND it takes forever since it randomly bounces all around.

I think roombas are much more useful for homes with pets, not necessarily children. They pick up a lot of the dust and dirt and hair that dogs bring in. Children are not that dirty. If I had a townhome I would take the other pp’s advice and get a lightweight dyson.

For a row home or townhouse, I'd recommend one per level. I turn it on when I leave the house, not when I'm around, so the kids aspect is not too relevant (mine are 5 and 1).

I’m not a fan of the Roomba. Too noisy and too slow. I love my Dyson for a quick vacuum under the kitchen table or family room rug.

Hi all. Does anyone have a Roomba and small kids (2 and 3 months)?

I'm wondering whether it's worth getting one of these for our row home or whether it would just be more of a mess with our kids.

Does anyone have experience with this?

Thanks in advance!