AIBU to think IKEA is a top parenting hack?

@Needmorelego . In the OP, He ran around loads, .

Why are people translating sitting on some sofas and playing with a (set up so you can try) wooden kitchen as "running around the store"?
Did the OP say her kids were running around?

The crèche, yes, but running around the store which other people are using ( including people with limited mobility), absolutely not. As others have said, it is a shop, not a playground.

Decathlon actually have sports equipment set up for people to try out.
My teen and her mate had a (sensibly played) game of badminton while I lay on one of the camping beds having a nap reading a book.

Exactly. Few minutes between ours. DNephew had an absolute ball in both a few months back.

Ha! We also have the train track in the loft 🤣 & the wooden, magnetic trains.

We were speaking about IKEA visits recently when DS1 home from uni- the arts & crafts & face-painting they'd put on in the holidays 😀, & the day when they locked down the store entrances as we couldn't find DS2 (age 3), but he was 2 metres behind us behind a display using a mop from the display to "mop the floor to help'. 🤣 I miss those days so much.

when mine were little id take them every feb half term as you’re limited then by the crap weather

I used to do this thirty years ago at the one in Leeds when it first opened. In those days it also had a ball pool where you could leave your child for half an hour with carers and you could disappear for a short break. It was drop and go. After the ball pool, we would spend aged in the child’s area, trying the wooden toys and tent beds.

hotdog treat at the end.

wonderful place.

yes to ELC and pet shops.

yup.

Decathlon and IKEA are both absolute bangers for a day trip with small children - often near each other too.

FFS to you to.
They are just having a bit of fun - not causing any trouble (usually).
As a teen did you never go to clothes shops and try clothes on but not buy, flick through posters at HMV but not buy, look through the books at a bookshop and not buy?
(If my teen goes she usually ends up buying a load of their nice biscuits etc and yet another of the soft toys....so actually spending money)

I live VERY close to an Ikea and on a rainy day the roads are chokka with families taking young kids to Ikea. Cheap feed for the family day out too.

Ffs. It's a shop not outsourced social work activities.

@Puffalicious oh how I miss those days!!! Just sitting in the cafe without anyone going " mumm" 😂😂😂 we still have the train track in the attic 😂😂

Mine too at 21 & 19. All my friends would meet with all our kids- 4 of us with 10 between us 🤣- kids went in the play area (an hour in those days) whilst we had coffee & cake & lay on the lovely sofas in the cafeteria. Then we'd all have cheap food (£1 for kids' meatballs!) & inevitably buy candles/ Swedish chocolate/ random bits before 50p ice-cream & a play in the outdoor play area. Perfect!

Ironic as your comments say a lot about your personality

Of course its for kids. Kids bring parents, parents spend money. Ikea spend vast amount of money on behavioural science. If they did want kids climbing on the beds they would put sign up. If it was just for looking at - why would they put stuff in the cupboards and draws for the kids to find.

Where did the OP say she let her kids trample on the furniture with their shoes on?

Something similiar to this was in our local Ikea many years ago: “children skip, run, hop, jump. They don’t walk”
Has always stuck with me as it’s so true!

I went in the summer holidays on a week day. DC had been given loads of vouchers to buy uni stuff. It was horrible as it was full of out of control children being ignored by parents/carers who obviously use it as a day out. The sense of entitlement and lack of awareness towards other shoppers was quite an eye opener, and lets face it, we are not talking parents from the lower economic classes here.

I have no issues with children being in public spaces, but parents have a responsibility to teach them appropriate behaviour and to be mindful of others. No one except parents and the closest family think their children are amazing or cute. I work with children and really enjoy spending time with them. The over confident and over indulged horrors will cause muttering and eye rolling.

We used to do that as well 😁 Pets stores and garden centres are great when you can’t face or afford ‘proper’ places.

Me and my friends always talk about the free 'days out' that we had, for our toddlers, that no longer exist. In Liverpool city center we had, TJHughes, Blacklers, George Henry Lee, Early Learning Center (full train set up), Wilkos, loads of discount shops and later the Disney Store. Also working fountains. Our garden centers aren't what they were.

Oh yes I used to do that with my DS many years ago before all the security stuff happened. We used to go up onto the roof to a special viewing place to watch the planes. We also loved IKEA, B&Q and Garden Centres. My DS also loved Wilkinsons store when that was around. Our local museum had a large lobster that lived in a massive tank we always popped in to visit him as well.

Maidenhead Aquatics or similar fish shop. We can spend ages looking at different fish and aquatic pets. We have fish so we can usually justify spending hours in there by buying some fish food or a new thermometer or something.They usually let you pay £1 for some food to feed the koi too.

See also pet shops that sell reptiles and exotics.

If either of those happen to be inside or adjacent to a garden centre with a cafe and/or play area, we can definitely get a whole day out of it.

There is a garden centre near us that has a camping shop, a fish and exotics shop, a cafe, and a birds of prey sanctuary all on one site. It’s amazing.

My parents used to take my kids to B&Q, no idea why ,but they loved it. Apparently ringing the door bells was a favourite.
We had a garden centre near us that sold fish they quiet liked that as well.