Children’s role play village expected you to spend last 15 mins of session tidying up

[L3tti316]

Now I’ve only ever been to one other role play village and this didn’t happen so unsure if it’s the norm or not? But we paid for an hour and a half session and after an hour and 15 minutes they, and this is no exaggeration, blasted a tidy up song and parents and children I’m assuming felt obliged to stop playing and to tidy up. The man who owned it (I think) started tidying up and putting things back too.

I don’t know if it’s just me but I really feel like those extra 15 minutes should be spent playing and not tidying, especially as we’ve already paid for an allocated ‘play’ session. I understand teaching kids to tidy up but we do this at home, we go to these places to have fun. My youngest didn’t understand why the trike he was going up and down on kept getting removed and my eldest has autism and was getting upset at children/parents removing everything he was trying to play with.

He’s very good at being told ‘let’s get our shoes on and go to the car’ he will immediately stop and do so but he does not understand why things are being removed and why everybody is suddenly running around like headless chickens.

I kind of walked out thinking well that was all a bit weird. There’s no right or wrong answer really but I’m just wondering if anybody else has encountered this before as I hadn’t?

If you practise at home, then practising outside home might be helpful too, @L3tti316. Your eldest will see you helping to tidy up at the role play session, and this will reinforce what you are doing at home.

You sound like an excellent parent - I hope you aren’t put off going back to the role play place.

I’ve been to loads of these types of places, both ones which have a permanent venue and ones which pop up in a village hall. Never had a whole 15 minutes to tidy! Maybe the last 5 minutes, and if people ignored it and carried on until the end time that was fine too. They have also all had Employees going round tidying/resetting throughout the session so it wasn’t such a big job at the end.

We aren’t talking a toddler group in a village hall run by volunteers. We are talking a paid for session and I agree it’s not cheap.

Thankfully they don't do that in the ones near us, although I do have the habit of tidying as we go. I'm afraid I would leave if they started playing a clean up song

We go to two role play villages and the staff tidy up. We don’t within the session as they have a gap between play sessions for that purpose where they also clean.

I wouldn’t pay to tidy up. DD tidies at home and nursery but not at play sessions.

I’d vote with my feet and not go back.

It does seem very normal but I'm not a fan when you're paying all that money. I don't mind it at a church hall stay and play that's run by volunteers and donations.

It was very loud too and that’s no exaggeration 😖 No music played prior to this either so it was hard to ignore, I guess that’s the point though! I do the same though, I tidy as we go along, or at least try to.

Oh absolutely. The small play groups we go to that are £1 a session and run by volunteers I have no issue what so ever with helping tidy at the end!

I’ve never thought about this before OP (our local role play village does similar) but YANBU. Wholly agree that when you’re paying quite a bit (ours isn’t cheap!) then if they really want help tidying up, add a 10-15 minutes break between each session so customers have the full allocated time to play.

They’re BU. Those types of places round here have half an hour between sessions purely so staff can tidy up. I’m not paying to tidy up after my child, I can do that for free at home 😄

Tidy up time is normal at such places I’ve been but it inly for 5 mins.

Yes - the owner should. Do you pop and wash the dishes after lunch at a cafe or restaurant, or pull out the mop and hoover at the end of your soft play or trampoline session?! This is not school, it's a payed for activity

I've just had to Google role play villages because I've never heard of them. They look great fun. How long have they been around?

I would be annoyed at having a tidy up song blasted at me and I do think 15mins is quite excessive. However I think most activities I've been to (from cheap to more expensive) have always had 5mins of tidying at the end which I think is fair enough.

We go to a role play session, they have tidy up time at the end but it's probably only 5 min and there is no song (the song would be annoying!). I don't mind, and the children seem to see it as continuing the play to sort out the shop, building site toys, doctor set etc. back in the right places.

Thank you for this. I didn’t want to say it as kind of afraid of the backlash but it’s so true! 😭 It’s like being annoyed if a person doesn’t clean their hotel room before leaving or not pulling forward items on shelves when out shopping. People are literally paid to do these things, it’s their job!

I'd expect tidy up time.

But I'd also expect the session to last the 1.5 hrs so 15 minutes between sessions and last 5 tidying up and 5/10 minutes to get out before the next session.

I run early years groups and don't expect any parent to tidy up and most parents don't. All I want is for families to leave on time so I can prep for the next session or so I don't end up staying late unpaid. Occasionally families try to help and this just slows me down, I can't chuck stuff back into place and carry things around quickly with toddlers around and they just undo things. It doesn't take as long with nobody there. I have been to a role play village with signs everywhere saying tidy up before you leave, and I chose not to go back, because they had way too many toys than was needed so it became quite stressful. The shop area had about 100 of each food item, if it was a smaller amount to tidy I wouldn't have minded as much.

They are great fun honestly! My two absolutely love them!

I went to one of these little play villages with my dd and dgd. I think I must be a bit of a sad woman because I enjoyed the tidying up part and in fact (without realising) continued long after everyone else had stopped 😂

YANBU, it's not the responsibility of the play village to teach your child to tidy up, there's plenty of opportunities to learn that when you haven't paid for an hour and a half or play!

Do you wash up after you've been to a restaurant? Clean the gym when you've finished your session? Sweep up the hair after having your haircut at a salon? - I suspect not.

YANBU. I'd expect to tidy up at a community centre or a playgroup. Not at somewhere that was making large profits from admissions fees (and cafe if they have one).

When we go to the roleplay cafe or soft play, the only thing the staff are ever doing is tidying up. If they didn't do that, I don't know what they'd be paid to do other than open the door!

YANBU. I'd not be paying to tidy up for someone else's profit.

I'm with you OP. This isn't nursery or school where I would expect to tidy up.
This is a business and I'm expecting to pay for the privilege of playing without worrying about tidying.

They need to factor it into their session times and rates, just like a soft play does.

We have one of these near us and it's definitely not expected that we tidy up.

We've been to a party at our local role play cafe, and the kids had to tidy up at the end. I'll be honest I didn't see a problem with it. The place was a tip. It would have still needed a proper tidy after, but at least the kids helped to take stuff back to the correct parts.

I would also make the bed and neaten a hotel room before leaving, and I stack our plates at the end of the table in a restaurant.