Where do you go on rainy days that isn't softplay or trampolining?

[stillsleeptraining]

I'm dreading 5 months a year of this for years and years! We usually go to the woods, park, cycling etc after swimming.

Ideas appreciated! We're in London

Parks with wellies
Library
Museum
Kids morning cinema
Aquarium
Days out to castles
Shopping centre
Big diy stores
Family visits

Nowhere!

Swimming

Following for ideas!

We do
Library
Toy shop and cafe

Like you say other than it's just soft play, swimming and bouncy place 🥱

Ten pin bowling
Crazy golf
Cinema

Childrens library
Local museum
Wander round the charity shops and then go out for cake
Go visit DM
Stay for tea/coffee after church
Luckily we are at peak birthday party every Saturday age so that takes up a few rainy days.

Museum, library, stately home/museum type places, friends or relatives houses, stay home, invite friends or relatives to our house, soft play, cafe for lunch or just a drink and cake mid afternoon, shopping, puddle suit on and just go for a walk or go to the park anyway and jump in puddles, cinema (for eldest who is 5.5, wouldn't take youngest who is 2), pottery painting (again only for eldest), play cafe... I find locally there are actually a lot of places that are indoors to entertain kids, but the problem is they usually work out much more expensive than just being able to take them out to the park for a couple of hours!

I no longer have young children at home but it was always nice to have an excuse to have a day at home.

Rainy days use to be painting days, baking days or even just playing.

It good for them to learn to amuse themselves occasionally.

Why not save some money and stay indoors?

Put a puddle suit on and go puddle jumping

We just stay at home, do craft activities, baking, play dough, painting, playing with puzzles and toys. Watch films, read books

Always out in the morning. Walk, woods, maybe take along friends.

Lunch, naps, crafts, messy play.

Skating. But a lot of wellies and waterproofs snd outside anyway.

Garden centres have craft days on during this time of year and they usually have fabulous cakes.

Unfortunately it costs a lot at this time as it's cinemas and arcade type places unless you're prepared to get wet and mucky.

Friends houses
The indoor skate park at the leisure centre
Pay £2.10 to book table tennis at the leisure centre - they set it up in a big dance studio and the kids spend two hours chasing each other around firing ping pong balls at each other
Family roller disco
Badminton
And of course endless football despite the endless rain.

Waterproofs on and crack on here 😂

Quite often a national trust type place as you can go in the houses if it's raining.

Or swimming (we have an annual pass) but then drying towels is a pain!

When my DC were little my 3 friends and I used to take turns to have lunch at each other’s houses once a week. Monday was always a staying in day, Tuesday lunch in day etc…

This morning we went outside in coats and wellies. Much fun was had.

Depending on age/temperament of kids

Museums
Woods/walk anyway (with appropriate wet weather gear)
Bowling
Indoor mini golf

Or stay in to do
Baking
Craft activities
play independently
Lego/construction toys
Board games
Indoor picnics

Invest in some decent wet weather gear instead

You're in London you lucky thing!

We made the mistake of moving back to the SW (we are Cornish though!) and there's nothing to do when it rains which is everyday. The museum here is shit (we dream of having London museums available again!)

Soft play & trampolining are long drives away and very busy because there's about 3 in the whole of Cornwall.

All the good shops have closed down and everything else is just meh. Cinema doesn't often have decent films in. Beach covered in dog poo.

So, 2P nudgers brings the most entertainment. and other than that we stay at home and house hunt online 😂

Oh yes and our indoor bowling place has closed down too 😁

If we could choose I'd have an annual membership to a good aquarium and visit the free museums!

Go outside.

This is the attitude I took for myself, realising that if I give in to the poor weather, I'll have at least three months of the year where I'm restricting myself and the enjoyment I can have, since this is where I live and this is the climate we have. That's a quarter of the year. Worse is that it's a quarter of every year, which means it's a quarter of my life.

So long as I have appropriate footwear and clothes, I'll be okay. And even if I get soaked to the skin on an outing, I'll eventually be dry and warm again.

We worked our way round every small-town museum and art gallery in about a 20 mile radius last winter. They all have a kids’ sheet or something to do, and it’s dry.

Loads of parks and National Trust places have outdoor trails at this time of year which are great - find all the pumpkins or reindeer or whatever and they’ve covered a couple of rainy miles without whinging.

Mine need proper exercise in the morning or they’re climbing the walls, so all the wholesome painting/crafts/baking can only really be done if they’ve been thrown into the park for a couple of hours in wellies first. Occasionally walking to the shops for baking ingredients or cycling to random cafe or whatever is used as a ruse to get them out of the house.

Waterproofs on and get outside doing the stuff you would usually do.