Sponsored video: Barclays and Mumsnet ‘Your Bank Live’
If you had to give mums a list of places it’s fun to visit with toddlers, or children of any ages, then banks would feature right down bumping at the bottom of the list, along with Post Office queues and the dentist. Although it’s tempting to do as much banking as possible online these days, just to avoid the whole experience, every now and then you do have to venture into a branch. If it’s a Barclays, you could be in for a nice surprise.
The bank has bravely thrown its doors open to Mumsnetters to give their views on their new child-centred approach, which includes colouring activity books, special helpers and a better layout. My own local Barclays is very small but a pleasant space, with a little seating area in which children can safely be deposited to play with this and that while the mummies queue a few feet away. The door is way too heavy for children to open unassisted, so it’s already safe and peaceful. It’s a far cry from a bank in Clapham I used to have to visit, which had stairs up to a door which was too narrow for a double buggy – nightmare!
There are still plenty of bank branches which are huge and full of snaking queues, where it’s hard to keep track of your kids while you’re trying to talk to a cashier – it’s in places like these that Barclays’ new initiative is so handy. The new book (with financial content!) to keep the kids entertained, a flock of ‘digital eagles’ to help mothers with the banking itself and child-friendly layouts all do a huge amount to make the experience less frazzling for mums and a lot less dull for the children themselves. If you want to have your say about changes which would make banking easier, go to the Barclays website or watch the video of the Mumsnetters giving Barclays a once-over with their children:
This post has been sponsored by Barclays