about these Mums in soft play?

[BobPatandIgglePiggle]

Happy to be told that I am.

Took ds (2) to softplay yesterday and was in there with him (hoying myself down the slide and getting stuck in the rollers which aren't built for women like me) helping him to climb etc

2 mams came into the toddler area with babies, both women had their boots / trainers on.

I caught the eye of one and said 'excuse me, please could you take your shoes off? There are babies crawling'

One said 'yeah, in a minute' her friend said 'I've got no socks with me'

There were no staff - it's in a leisure centre and they were over the far side behind barriers

I told them that they could have anything dog shit on their shoes so could they please take them off.

They both flounced out and 1 took her boots off and came back in whilst the other made a phone call and loudly told the person on the other end of the line about the 'mardy cow at softplay who'd made her take her shoes off'

Wibu and petty to insist when it really wasn't my place?

[QuizzicalCat]

My DD plays with her same age friends at soft play and has done since she turned two.

They're all around two and a half and can use the equipment just fine, in fact when I did go in once dd told me off because 'is only for chidrun Mummee!'

You said yourself that your two year old is small, perhaps it's not that other people are lying, it's that your ds is the exception rather than the rule you seem to see him as.

[BobPatandIgglePiggle]

Are you talking about soft play or a park?? Our soft play is like a black hole Once he's in then I can't see him. The slides are in the middle so I couldn't supervise him unless I climbed on the equipment. The toddler area has a climb hole up to the other level so can't stop him going up. He gets stuck though on some bits - its massive and maze like!

[HaroldLloyd]

Some 2 year olds are fine alone, some not. They are all very different at that age.

[BobPatandIgglePiggle]

The rule I see him as? Ffs really - I don't think so.

There were 3 other parents in ours today with little ones. The place is massive.

I have also worked in one so have spent hours in them. Few just turned 2 year olds are confident users of the whole place alone.

[treaclesoda]

Toddlers area at the one I go to is laid out in such a way that all parts of it are visible from outside - you can stand outside the netting and be able to see them no matter where they are, it sticks out into
the middle of the room and is exposed on three sides with only one narrow bit up against the wall. Grown ups wouldn't fit through the little entrance to get into it, even my two year old has to get down and crawl through the gap.

[QuizzicalCat]

Exactly Harold - they are all different.

Just because your ds can't go off and play on his own, and is small doesn't mean that all two year old are.

To say that you don't believe that others do because your child doesn't is just daft.

[QuizzicalCat]

I simply don't believe people saying their little ones are happy to run around on their own.

Why not? Because your child doesn't? That is you judging others as liars based on your child.

But my child isn't your child. Mine is more than happy to gallop off into soft play without me running around beside her.

But you simply don't believe me, and wouldn't believe my friends whose children my dd is running around soft play with.

And you don't think you're holding your son up as some sort of 'THIS is how two year olds play at soft play and anyone who says their child does happily go off is a liar!' because that's pretty much what you've said.

They all do different things at different times, just because your child isn't doing something it doesn't mean others his age aren't. Just like there will be things he is doing that others don't.

If you told me that your ds was doing something my dd isn't yet I wouldn't disbelieve you, why would I?!

[BobPatandIgglePiggle]

You're sounding a tad screechy there Quiz - back off with the attack and liar comments please, this is a forum. Not a battle ground.

I worked in one so have experience of other people's kids using soft play. That is what I'm basing my musings (note, not accusations) on.

[BobPatandIgglePiggle]

Oh, and no - I'm not holding him up. I'm encouraging him, praising him and teaching him to turn take etc.

[Waltermittythesequel]

Bob to be fair you did say you simply didn't believe people. That's pretty much calling them liars isn't it?

Fwiw all my dc played alone in the toddler areas of soft plays.

I supervised, I watched and I encouraged but I didn't try to go on the bloody stuff myself! (I'd me mortified!)

[windchime]

Oh yes because soft play equipment is sooooooo clean normally

[BeyondRepair]

I am not sure whats worse people with bare feet or those with shoes on.

Anyway you should have got out discreetly and told a member of staff and let them deal with it.

[RabbitSaysWoof]

I think YABU and a tad neurotic.
None of these places started off sterile each day its like the park without the rain.

I'm another one of those liars who's just turned 2 year old has been running off at soft play since before he was 18 months old. If he cant get on it by himself then its not in hes age group yet, but that's fine because there are plenty of amusing things on every level at all of the soft plays I've been to. I supervise from the sidelines.

[BumpAndGrind]

DD is only 6 months so yet to experience soft play, but our local one hires out to adult parties in the evening.

[CornishYarg]

YANBU about the shoes.

Re the supervision/going on the equipment, it depends on the layout of the centre. There are two small centres in our area where you can see everything from outside so I supervise 2 year old DS from there.

But our nearest one is huge (it's in a former warehouse) and large parts of it can't be seen from outside. DS can manage to make his way up to the top without help but he's too little to climb up the final step to the big slide. Other than retracing his steps, this is the only way down. So I position myself there so I can help him with the final climb and I can see him make his way up. And yes, when we leave or if I need to get to the bottom quickly for any reason, I take the slide!

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

Hmmm - I think that people have different ideas about soft play. Where we live it is probably 25m (swimming pool length) each way and the highest bit is probably house height.

The only way to supervise is from in it.

[TaliZorahVasNormandy]

Always take the slide!!

[TaliZorahVasNormandy]

Its the same at my local centre, its floor to ceiling in a warehouse, its huge and you cant see at the back or up to the top from the ground, if under 4's wanna go in it, parents or other responsible adults, have gotta go in too.

[treaclesoda]

The 'main' bit of my local soft play is like that, the height of a house etc, but the toddler bit is only about as tall as an adult, so it's easy to just stand up and look in.

By the time they're big enough and confident enough to go on the big equipment, I'm not bothered about watching their every move, as it's a safe, enclosed place for them to climb.

[SingSongSlummy]

Erm, I'm pretty sure that some of you have never been to the huge soft play centres (I'm talking 5 levels, in a massive warehouse, dodgems, carousels etc) if you'd let a 2 yr old roam free in them! Apart from helping them, you'd actually just lose them as you can't see where they are unless you're in there too!

OP YAnBU

[BobPatandIgglePiggle]

Ours has a climb hole in the toddlers bit to the big bit though...

[treaclesoda]

No, fair enough, I've never heard of a soft play with carousels etc, that would probably count as a theme park round here My DC would love that...

The only ones I've ever been to have been a sort of warehouse type setting with a main climbing frame/slides etc which is more or less the the height of the building and a separate toddler area which is not connected to the main climbing frame.

And they all have signs up saying no one over the age of 12 is allowed on the equipment. (Or in the case of one of them, no one over the age of 8). I promise, I'm not making it up - adults genuinely couldn't fit into the toddler play area in the one that I most often go to. I love the fact that it's all toddler sized and they can safely play without adults standing waiting to catch them.

[SingSongSlummy]

treacle yours sounds waaaay more relaxing. Can we swap?!

[treaclesoda]

Only if you keep my two year old. I'm not letting him loose in something five stories high, he'd be up to the top in no time, he knows no fear!

[BobPatandIgglePiggle]

Nope - ours is all joined, he fell down one of the crawl up holes today on level 2 and I was watching him. If I'd not been there he'd have been lying crying. He fell down behind a big cushion thing - no way could I have spotted him from outside and coaxed him down.