To wish DDs friends' parents would stop having parties at this venue?

[MrsWinnibago]

It's a softplay place. It's 7 miles from our village (where everyone lives) and it's nasty!

It's cheap for after school parties...£100 for a whole class. It STINKS to high heaven and is dirty.

The loos are a no go zone and the parents who visit with their DC (not at parties) are often swearing and aggressive. The last one I went to with DD was awful. A child ran into another smaller child by accident and then looked at the Dad and said "Oh sorry!" and stopped and the Dad ROARED "Well don't say sorry to ME!!! Say sorry to HER!!"

They weren't with the party but still...quite awful to see.

There is a much nicer soft play near to the village and it's 50 quid more...but it's clean and well run!

I resent having to organise getting DD to this stinking pit and paying out for a gift too. I don't drive so have to try to get DD in with a friend which means I feel bad for foisting her on another parent.

I don't send her to most of the parties there anymore...but she's been invited to FIVE this term and I've refused three..now another has arrived and she likes the child whose party it is and has begged to go.

WHY do they keep booking the shithole? They're in year 1 and I thought they would slow down this type of party now?

Year 1? don't worry your years in soft play party hell are drawing to a close Hopefully this term's batch will be amongst the last of them.

Well it's cheap and te kids like it.

Soft play is the seventh circle of hell. I feel your pain they make me feel ill.

Do the children have fun?

they book it because it is cheap. parties for large numbers are really expensive when you add in the food and party bags etc and people on a limited budget get nagged into inviting lots of kids so have to go for the cheaper option. if you do go why not strike up a conversation about the other play place. but you are talking about it costing £150 rather than £100 so quite a steep price difference. fortunately these parties fizzle out as they get older.

Can you complain to the council or something citing health & safety? Do they need license to operate from the council, I've no idea how these things are run. But if the hygeine in the loos are bad then the kitchens maybe questionable too. It's one avenue to explore but I might be completely wrong.

Hak Well we have a VERY tight budget and I can't afford to buy gifts for kids DD isn't friends with.

I appreciate it's kind to invite the whole class...but that fiver for a gift and whatever for card/wrapping paper and coffee while I'm there is too much.

MsVenus I did think of it after I went in their loo last time. It really did reek...

Mummy that's my point really. If you can't afford it then don't do it surely?

Money, money, money, sadly. I hope, though, that they don't have to eat there...?

YANBU. All softplay venues are total shitholes. They are filthy to their neon plastic core. You have my every sympathy.

You can't afford the fiver for kids presents, but expect other parents to pay £50 for somewhere you deem suitable to spend your time?

Plu yes! They do! And that stinks too! And my non fussy child who loves a bit of junk food hates the food on offer.

Teeb no! I don't expect feck all! I'd be thrilled if they stopped the whole charade entirely!

But if they want a party then have it somewhere decent that doesn't smell of shit.

But they can afford £100 which is why they go to the place that costs that much!
You can buy really cheap bumper boxes of books and packs of birthday cards online that will last you at least 20 parties - you don't have to spend £5-10 on one child there are cheaper gifts.

It's nice of them to invite your child. I was always grateful to anyone for inviting my child to a party as it involves a lot more time, money and effort to organise a party than it does to rock up with a present. If the play area is really so filthy, then have you reported it to environmental health? If your dd wants to go, then presumably she enjoys going to parties there which is the point of it.

Well, if the food and venue are so horrible, don't go. They will probably be relieved to have one fewer to pay for...

But it's not about you. It's a pain in the bum I agree but this phase doesn't last forever. Just grit your teeth and bear it....

Maybe it's because dd is a bit quirky so I worry about her popularity or because she is a bit younger so it is fairly new that she is invited because the child likes her rather than because the mum knows me but if dd is invited to a party I'm so grateful that if it took place in a sewer I'd be there with dd wearing her party frock, carrying a present and commenting loudly on what a lovely original idea and so nice for the children to get close to nature as a rat ran over my foot.

Don't go.

Mumoftwo I TOTALLY relate to that. My older DD is quirky too and when it was all "new" and she began to get invited to things I too was grateful.

I suppose I think people should stop the whole class things now.

Usual how would you know that? You're just posting to be nasty.

Yabu...and rather snooty to boot, sorry. Birthday parties cost a bomb and people will always look to save money on them.

I don't think yabu! I hate smelly soft play places and the sticky feel of the soft blocks. IMO people take kids who are far too old for it, too. They get over excited and it all goes a bit Lord of the Flies. Makes me wonde pr why people can't think of more interesting things to so with their 6/7/8 y olds. I'd be in the 'pay and extra £50 and save everyone the horror' camp with OP.
There's one near us and my ds (then 1) got flea bites after we went! The horrifying thing is that a local nursery (rated outstanding by offsted!) are sited next door and frequently use this place as an 'outing' for their charges.

mumoftwo
You're my kind of girl.

Parties are for kids to enjoy. If they were for the benefit of adults they would not exist or you'd find me drunk in the corner at everyone of them. Don't worry about it, let your child go and think of all the immunity she's building up being exposed to all those germs.

I feel more sorry for the poor kids that never get invites.