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?

Why bother making the beds in a hotel? You know they strip them between guests right?

Ive been to 2 of these and tidy up has been part of both. My local is 1hr 45 and last 10-15 mins tidying (staff are tidying too but it is carnage!)
I think it's good, gets the kids in "leave" mode and it's a communal tidying activity, it's a skill for them to learn. We usually tidy a bit and go to the loo, the 15 mins between sessions is for cleaning loos/cafe area getting people to actually leave!

Why though? They’re going to strip the bed and I bloody hope clean everything else properly. And waiters/waitresses will have their own preferred way of stacking the plates so they’re balanced to carry. The way I see it it’s best to let the professionals do their jobs and to leave a good tip in way of thanks!

The danger with getting the care givers to tidy up is that the toys aren't being checked over by the organisers. I stopped visiting a playgroup that did that as a lot of the toys were dirty and broken.

But not that expensive.
Same at the place I went to with my chikdren. We help tidy up. No big deal.

If your child can't handle it tell the instructor and leave.

Good for you that you don’t find that expensive but many will. When you factor in the money we spent on drinks and lunch it came to £35+ which I particularly find a lot of money for my session to be cut 15 minutes short in order to tidy. It’s all good and well telling the owner my son can’t handle it but it’s the fact the chaos of it all created the upset in the first place, the damage was already done so to speak.

They do this in ours too - I call it grown up's play time, because every item has a specific place to go and tidying up scratches my organisation itch.

They do it in a nice way, where the kids are made to feel like they're helping the people that 'live in the village' to keep it tidy.

It's good for the kids to learn about tidying up after yourself, lending a hand and being kind. Free parenting from the play village, win-win.

That's your choice. They aren't sounding a claxon and demanding you do it before you can leave/check out. Nor are they charging you for the time spent there then expecting you to deal with all your dishes within that time in the case of the restaurant

This would encourage me to go back, though I think 10 minutes would be enough. Certainly by age three, DS would have been upset if we had to leave a play session as our time had ended, with everything still in a mess. If they didn't do this I'd have been prompting him when it was five minutes to go so he could at least tidy what he'd been last playing with.

Many many moons ago I was a play leader at a kids holiday camp. At the end of the day they all had to tidy up.

One child said to me ‘I don’t have to do this because my dad pays you to do it’

I told his dad at pick up and he was mortified.

just tidy up OP you and your ds are not that special 😂🙈

Yes, the owner should tidy. You’ve paid for an activity to play, not tidy

The organiser isn’t teaching the child anything. They are just using them to tidy up so not to eat into their profits and hire another pair of hands!!

Wow… I never said anywhere that I refused to tidy, just that I thought it was odd. Despite not agreeing with it, I did tidy as everybody else was doing it and didn’t want to be ‘that person’ who didn’t. I obliged whilst there and now I just won’t go back.

Unfortunately as my eldest has additional needs, special measures do have to be put in place, that is our life, every single day. I read the reviews, I read the website (as I do with everywhere new we go) and had it been mentioned that they did this, we wouldn’t have gone as I’d have known beforehand it would lead to him being upset.

Those places are expensive so I think that's unreasonable. We go to a little church run toddler group that is £1.50 donation and at the end we all help put the toys away but that's different I think

I agree with you OP. I suggest you email the owner so they know why people are choosing not to return.

Having had a dc with additional needs who found transitions difficult, this would have been wonderful for him because it would have given him notice of finishing and given him calm down time.
It would have made the end of the session so easy for me after the first time, when it would have taken a bit of work from me explaining. After that he would have been "oh yes. This is the routine." I probably wouldn't even have had to tell him to get his shoes on/coat on because he'd have processed that in his head as "time to go".

Depends if their sessions are full anyway. It would have been great for us, DS would have been upset if he couldn't tidy up and if I let him know when we had five minutes to go so he could tidy and other children then messed up what he'd tidied then that would have upset him too. Everyone tidying together would encourage me to return.

It’s great for some children with additional needs but unfortunately no two are the same and my son in particular couldn’t handle it.

There’s probably a threshold for me of about £5 in which I’m happy to help clean up afterwards. Over that and I think it’s probably the responsibility of the owners. There’s a role play village near us and they close between sessions to clean and tidy, disinfecting the role play materials which I like because many toddlers will put these role play items into their mouth. At least cleaning and tidying between sessions limits the griminess of the toys.

We do tidy as we go. I see some families in there and it’s a free for all, the parents just let carnage rip through the different settings. I encourage DC to at least put things back at least in the right section, if not in the right place. DC tidies up at nursery and we tidy up at home. I think some of these sessions are like when I want to go to a cafe restaurant - so I don’t have to clean up after!

I think that's a great idea.

Makes business sense AND it's good for the kids to get involved in tidying up the mess they made.

It's a good habit to get into.

It would be good for many other children with additional needs, so I think your best option would be to leave early.

Yeah had there been any indication via a sign on the wall for example I’d have left earlier to avoid any stressful situations for my son. I checked the website beforehand too and there was nothing there to say this is what they did, if so I wouldn’t have gone as I’d have known my son wouldn’t have coped with it.

I had a bad back after my second, so i wouldn't have been to do that. It would put me off going again, if I'm honest.

I agree they should put it on the website, whichever way they choose to do it. I'd assume the children would tidy like at other groups we went to, so it would cause upset if they played until the end and my child was unable to tidy up without other children pulling everything back out. We'd have avoided groups where the children didn't tidy as to DS it just had to be done.

The children tidy up, with help, but I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem if you couldn't.