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?

I don’t think there is anything wrong with this. I love it when the tidy up song comes on, because I think ‘brilliant, only ten more minutes and I can get out of this hell’.

I think the main issue is the fact it was 15 minutes. I think 5 minutes is completely okay, I still wouldn’t have gone or would have left just before the 5 minute mark as to not upset my son. Who despite everybody saying it would be beneficial to those with additional needs, to him it wouldn’t have been. Or you pay for your complete session time of play and then can help tidy up afterwards for 5-10 minutes if you wish and then the next session comes in after the staff have had chance to go over it themselves and clean alone. As someone mentioned don’t toys need checking? To make sure they’re not broken or damaged?

I have no problem at all with helping tidy, I just would rather it not be during the 15 minutes I’ve paid for for my children to play and use the facilities, especially when the session is only 1.5 hours long and altogether we paid over £35.

I'm happy to tidy up at a toddler group where I've paid £2.00 and the workers are volunteers. I wouldn't be happy to pay £10.00 (what it costs for a session in our local role play cafe) to tidy up, I'd expect that to be factored in.

But additional needs or not learning to tidy up after himself within his ability is fine.

My son is autistic and has always been taught to tidy up after yourself when out.

For sure. We’ve been to many play groups that have only cost £1 each child to play for 40 minutes or so and have had absolutely no problem helping put toys away and tidy. But big businesses charging a fair bit of money for food, drink and entry in.. I was a bit baffled.

Yes. It's a private enterprise and presumably what the OP paid for - x amount of time.

Which is absolutely fantastic that you’ve been able to teach your son that. I’ve never said learning to tidy up is a bad thing, he can sometimes help tidy at home and I know they do it at school with him. But for the most part he doesn’t understand, especially in an unfamiliar place.

Wouldn't you have to take your child out early though?

We take my youngest to these play groups, not my eldest.

I go to a couple of local play cafes and they don't do this. The session ends with 10mins of storytime and a member of staff starts to discreetly put toys back in their rightful places at this point.

Was it obvious where to put all of the toys, or was everyone wandering around and just shoving everything anywhere? I would prefer to know in advance that this was part of the "experience" and debate whether the cost was worth 1 hour 15 mins of play and 15 mins of tidying up, versus 1 hour 30 mins of play.

I always end up tidying up anyway but I’d be annoyed to be expected to do it - these play cafes, especially the really cutesy ones around us, aren’t cheap (£15 a child in some) so I’d expect for DD to be able to play for the full session. Ours all seem to allow 15 mins between for tidying and cleaning anyway. I think they’re being very unreasonable! They could shorten the sessions to 1hr15 and give themselves the extra that way.

I think a lot of people either don't understand what this type of activity is or are being deliberately goady in making the comparison to school etc.

Around here none of the role play villages expect you to spend time tidying up. You finish the session, leave and the staff sort it out before the next session. You're paying to play not set it all up for the next lot of children.

I do think tidying up after themselves is beneficial to the vast majority of children, but they should say what they do on the website for those who would need to leave early. The cost of a gap between sessions would be passed on to families, or the session shortened, so I don't understand the 'pay £x, don't tidy' thing.

Thank you! I did wonder if people know the type of place I’m talking about. I’ve asked my mum friends if they’ve ever experienced it and they are also shocked and judging by comments on this thread they are not the only ones. I’ve said previously, small play groups and the toddler play and stay sessions you pay for in blocks and visit weekly I can understand. But not role play villages that have paid staff to tidy and clean. I know teaching children to tidy is a good thing, trust me I do, but this isn’t school.. it’s supposed to be a fun day out for them and not remotely like school at all! 😖

Many young children, particularly those with autistic traits, may not be able to have one rule for the play village and another for everywhere else. Some, like my DS at that age, would be upset if they couldn't tidy up. I think it's easier to treat it the same as other settings children attend. It could be just 5 minutes and a rough tidying up but I think it should be part of it.

Are you in Staffordshire OP? One I went to recently did this however there wasn't pressure for the kids to tidy up, just to help if they could. I didn't have an issue as after we go home they then spend 30 minutes hoovering and disinfecting etc before the next session.
If you are in Staffordshire I know of a play village that doesn't do this if you want their details!

Count your blessings.
Go to 'Co-Op Live' and you may have to reinstall parts of the ventilation system. 🤕

Ahh no I’m not in Staffordshire but thank you so much for offering to suggest somewhere, I appreciate it! Maybe let people know anyway in case anybody else reading this is near? 🙂

We spend £15 per child and £5 per adult to get into ours, they have an hour gap between sessions, and you still have to spend the last 15 minutes tidying up. Yours seems like a bargain 😆

Why though? You don't tidy up at every place you take your child so it's not like the role play village is an anomaly? It's a paid for activity you no sooner tidy up there than you do at any other paid activity like gymnastics, trampolining, swimming sessions etc.

Maybe the fact that there's a tidy-up time makes people think twice about leaving the place in an unmanagable state for others to have to deal with.

My neighbour and I are both involved as volunteers at different low-cost youth activities. It's amazing how many families think that for roughly £10 per month not only do we cover the costs but are paid on top and it's frequent that families do nothing to support the logistics e.g. packing equipment away or supporting events because they paid a cost-price fee so it's the leaders/ coaches problem. Profitable business/ volunteer led often doesn't change peoples' attitudes to being helpful if money changed hands in the first place.

Learning to tidy as you go in a variety of settings tends to be of long-term benefit to children. Staff are often paid to clean in businesses, but the logistics of leaving mess behind means they have to tidy before cleaning and that takes much more time away from services.

Now OP knows that it's the system at this place can the child be briefed to know what to expect at this venue?

I wouldn't expect to tidy up. You have paid to have fun at the session not to become staff.

My son has very poor/limited receptive language so unfortunately it’s not something he can be briefed on at this age. To save any upset we just won’t go back and will choose the other role play village near us that doesn’t expect this from people!

We only did swimming out of those, and they did tidy up, putting pool noodles or kickboards in a specific place for the next session. At martial arts (school age), they helped set up and pack away, same at Scouts from age 6. I can't think of anything we attended where they didn't at least help.

That's really bad of them op. I've been to several places like what you describe and they pay someone to go round tidying and also leave gaps between the sessions just to make sure everything is done properly. At no point are the parents or kids expected to tidy and that's how it should be!