Whyyyyyy don't parents supervise their kids at soft play?!

[Notmycircusnotmyotter]

It's the holidays so another of these threads. Took my 2 and 4 year old to a soft play today. All fun and games until kids start getting hurt by children that are either too big or need supervising.

If you have a child that is totally fine playing without supervision - great! This isn't aimed at you.

If your kid is unruly - keep an eye on them FFS.

I've seen so many little ones (2-4ish) flattened or pushed around roughly by big kids today. Parents nowhere to be seen. including a young boy with autism (he was wearing a lanyard saying as much) who was in the baby bit hurting them - not intentionally but jumping about and landing on really small kids, clearly hurting them. Not his fault but again, no parent in sight.

Is it that hard to look after your kids?

Some parents are too busy chatting and other distractions, they go to soft play so they don’t need to interact with their children. I have seen this many times.

Because most parents who take their kids to soft play go purely so they don’t have to look after or watch them and they can just sit and chat or look at their phone.

exactly.

I am this parent. How can you watch everything that's going on inside a soft play? I cast my eyes over it and my child runs out to me fairly regularly. But otherwise I'm drinking a coffee and disassociating from my own life 😂

If they're hurting other kids or big ones jumping around baby bit with little ones in the way I just tell them myself... if they carry on (they don't usually) i go find parents and staff.

Its annoying but seems to solve it (at least for rest of session!)

IMO it’s the kids who weren’t supervised properly when they were younger who grow up to be the unruly older ones, because they were never taught how to behave.

Now my kids are 10 and 7 I don’t follow them around the soft play but they are still kids and I’d have no issue with another parent telling them off if something happens that I don’t see. It’s never happened though because they know how to behave.

That being said parents of younger kids can’t complain if they take a 1 year old in the 5+ area and they get knocked over by accident.

The parents of unruly kids take them to soft play because they are unruly imo. One time we had lunch at soft play, a little girl came up to our table, pushed my bag off the chair to sit down and starting eating my ds2’s sandwiches. No parent in sight!

this is why child free weddings are getting so popular

Mine are pretty self sufficient (2 year old is hard as nails 😂) but I stick close to make sure. Surely if you know your kid is a bit of a dick / doesn't behave you hover nearby?

Too busy drinking their overpriced coffee and thinking the soft play is the babysitter.

Brave comment.... but true!(await the shreiking hordes of 'its faaammmily the newly married couple should of course prioritise screaming rambunctiousness at their expensive day!)😆

Probably scared their phone will self combust if they don't grip it hard enough

I am not sure all parents who have dickish kids think they have dickish kids unfortunately (or they do and they just don't care).

Just come back from soft play this morning. Took my DD 28 month old and DS 11 month old. DD ran off into the big section for the first time on her own and I kept an eye on her from outside the climbing frame. She went to climb up these big steep soft step things and a few boys started going down them as a slide! One little girl went flying to I had to shout to DD to move before she got hurt! They didn’t care that there was kids at the bottom trying to climb up and the parents were nowhere to be seen

I’ve had to stop going to soft play 🤦🏻‍♀️ I have two DC, aged 4 and 3. I go into the soft play with them for the majority of the time, because I like playing with them and climbing around with them. We make up games and race down the slides etc.

Every. Single. Time. I end up looking after a gaggle of children. They want to join in our games because their parents (or whoever has brought them there) essentially ignore them. They sit at tables drinking coffee on their phones. It is exhausting have to manage/discipline other people’s children as well as my own.

I just want to have a lovely hour of playing with my kids!

P.S. I’m not a helicopter parent. At parks and playgrounds they go off and play by themselves. But I can always seem them and make sure they’re not being little shites to other kids. In a soft play you can’t guarantee this, so I go in with them!

Depends on the age limit tbh. There's a 6+ bit in ours which is pretty much every man for themselves - until someone with a 3 year old lets their little poppet go in, and gets grumpy that it's rough and tumble.

I don’t get this? How small are your softplays? The softplay near me is huge and I definitely couldn’t keep an eye on my 5 year DS the entire time because he goes off high up enjoying himself - the only alternative surely would be for me to physically go in with him, and if all parents did that they’d be no room for the kids to even play 🤷🏼‍♀️

You go in with them or walk around the edge of they're near that part. You definitely don't sit there having a coffee or looking at your phone like most of the moronic parents there.

Soft play is hell on earth mainly because of those type of children and parents described by the OP. I avoided it as much as possible and went there once or twice with my children and never with my grandchildren. When you see most of the parents there you can just tell that the majority aren't the most engaged parents, they're the type who plonk a screen in front of the children rather than play with them.

Who said I sit there having a coffee or on my phone? 😂 I typically stand around the area my son is in but I most definitely don’t have eyes on him the entire time, as don’t most parents, because there’s lots of little areas for children to crawl into etc there’s nothing wrong with letting your child have some independence to play with their friends without you physically being up in the softplay with them

But yes there are some neglectful parents who sit the furthest away and don’t check in even once

Oh god if every parent went in you wouldn't be able to move! Keep an eye on them for sure but I only went in when mine got stuck.

Because lots of parents are useless. Personally I wouldn't go if this is a regular occurrence or go where there is a under 5's time slot or if there is an under 5's area.

I think this is fine, but if you know your child is not very mindful of others then you be keeping an eye on them or not take them at all. Let's face it, it's only some children that do this (and everyone knows who they are), owt children are perfectly capable to play with others nicely.

Because there's a very specific type of parent who always take their kids to soft play and it's quite obvious why they don't keep an eye on them. They're the ones who wish they never had kids at all and a soft play is the closest, affordable option to have them out of sight and out of mind for hours.

My kid is autistic, he was the grabber, the pusher, the jumper when at soft play. So we went when it was most quiet and I was always on top of his ass. I get bloody frustrated when I see people complaining that their ASD child isn't accepted in places (due to their behaviour), when their children have been biting, hitting, grabbing, throwing. If you know you're taking your child to an overstimulating free-for-all you are on their tail at all times.

Honestly annoys the crap outta me, I get parents generally go to soft play to let their kids run riot safely and have a bit of chill time. Unfortunately if you have a child that can't be safe with themselves or others, you're in that soft play while once again your tea goes cold.

I don't watch my child at soft play. I enjoy a coffee and a scroll on my phone.

Then again I don't need to, because my child isn't nasty and has been brought up to be respectful to others.

Which is fine, if their child is well behaved.