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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

WIBU to take DS on trip to motorway service station

193 replies

craftsy · 01/07/2017 13:36

Having a very lazy day after a night of crap sleep with 4yo DS who was very unsettled with nightmares from 2-5am. I have a mound of housework and a bit of shopping to do but am quite tempted to just get in the car, drive 10-15 to services and let DS play in the small soft play area for a bit. And possibly have a junk food lunch.

DS is going a bit stir crazy but it's raining here, so going to a playground or the woods would be a washout. We could go to soft play but they would all be packed and a bit hellish. We'd have to stay for 90 minutes, DS would want me to play with him and I just don't have the energy for it. And the food is dire in all the soft play places I know of. In a service station, DS would play for a while, lunch would at least taste decent, it wouldn't be too noisy. We could leave after an hour and I could do my shopping on the way home and make us a healthy supper to compensate for the Burger King or Subway lunch.

Pros are that DS would actually probably love it and find it a very exciting adventure. While I think I would find it less tiring than soft-play. Cons are that as someone who only very recently has a driving licence, I know me of a year ago would think that going on a day out to a motorway service station is the most bonkers excuse of a trip ever. It's also possible that DS would prefer some other outing and I'm just a bit giddy with my new found power of transportation.

OP posts:

Thumbcat · 01/07/2017 16:14

Sounds fine to me. I sometimes took DS to Ikea on rainy days when he was small and I needed somewhere low effort to go.

LadyPenelope68 · 01/07/2017 16:15

hazelnutlatte you don't live near Tebay Services do you? Best services ever!

Sparklingbrook · 01/07/2017 16:21

I am a bit I have teenagers now.

Top treats for them as 4 year olds were going to

Use car garages or new car showrooms.
Big garden centre with pet and fish section. And a section with sheds/summer houses.
Motorway services for a Burger King.
Standing on the railway bridge watching the trains.
Watching canal boats go through the locks.

Now, not so much.

DramaAlpaca · 01/07/2017 16:25

Same here Sparkling. I miss the days when the boys were little and loved that kind of thing

OP, a day trip to the motorway service station sounds great. I'd have done that with mine back in the day. Glad you are having fun.

Elendon · 01/07/2017 16:26

I think your idea is brilliant. I once took my son on a very long, though local bus journey (he had a thing about them at 3 years old). It was bliss.

Sparklingbrook · 01/07/2017 16:29

There used to be a bus route in Birmingham that went round in a circle, the No11 I think. My Nan used to take my Mum on it when she was little, they didn't get off, just went round.

Drama i remember the days when they were happy with a 99p Matchbox car on a shopping trip. They would clutch it all the way home.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 01/07/2017 16:33

There's a big pet shop near where we live, it's still popular for the occasional visit even though my DC are 13 and 9 now. The spiders and lizards are a particular favourite, as are the live food (crickets and other insects).

EB123 · 01/07/2017 16:51

We have gone to ikea with ours because they love getting measuring tapes and the mini pencils and pretending to measure everything.

Ikea have a leaflet for kids at the start and if they find the prices of certain products and fill the leaflet in they get a free ice cream at the end.

PetalHead · 01/07/2017 16:57

Oh I loved this kind of thing when mine were little. We have a local footbridge over a railway station and we could spend hours watching trains come and go.

Leicester Forest East service station is like this but with cars, and last time we were there we were mesmerised by it. (Also love it architecturally.) And I also love Tebay services on the M6.

What DS loved most at age about 3 was going to the airport. Ours doesn't even have a viewing gallery but we could see planes taking off from the top of the multi-storey carpark!

Also once we went to an airshow. We spent the most time wandering through the parking field, with DS asking what each and every car was called. I was ambling along with him going "Vauxhall Vectra... Landrover... Nissan Micra" etc for ages and he was thrilled :o

PetalHead · 01/07/2017 16:58

(i.e. that's where we could see them from. Not where they took off from.)

Sparklingbrook · 01/07/2017 17:00

That's disappointing Petal planes taking off from the car park roof sounds epic.

PetalHead · 01/07/2017 17:01

I know. It wouldn't just be 3yos who would flock to see that :)

spiderlight · 01/07/2017 17:01

My DS's most treasured and vivid memories of days out when he was younger are of the times we went to a John Deere tractor dealership, a Case tractor dealership and the parking area of a Caterpillar digger repair place. All the staff were lovely to him and showed him round as if he were there to spend half a million on farm machinery. He would probably still love a trip to a service station today, although he'd want to sit and watch the motorway rather than the soft play!

PetalHead · 01/07/2017 17:05

Spiderlight that's lovely! I used to let DS stop to look at building sites - one time there was one with an open fence and we could see it all easily. The digger driver saw us watching and did a "dance" with the digger making it spin round and wave everywhere. Probably illegal and dangerous but you have never seen a more delighted toddler!

user1andonly · 01/07/2017 17:15

Fantastic idea - glad you and DS had fun!

I used to take mine to Ikea, book them into the ball pool for 45 minutes (think that was the maximum time allowed!) and go for a coffee. Then take them to the childrens area and let them look around the rooms and go on the bed with a slide. The a go in the little outdoor play area. Filled an afternoon nicely!

Also, shopping centre with creche nearby. I'd phone up and make sure there was a space (as it was gutting to get there and find they were full!) book them in and just go for a coffee and a read of a magazine in peace for an hour.

topcat2014 · 01/07/2017 17:19

We live near Gloucester services, and went there especially.

It is, in my view, seriously cool and not part of a chain. They have one other services in the north somewhere. Put a lot of high end garden centre type places to shame. (eg Burford Garden Company).

If I lived near Keele services I might be less inclined..

HemanOrSheRa · 01/07/2017 17:22

We go down to Cornwall a lot. When DS was little one of the highlights of the entire holiday would be stopping at The Check Point and buying chocolate 'meclairs'. It was Exeter Services . I have no doubt that he would have been perfectly happy just doing that!

We live near an A road. It's just where it comes into a built up area. It does have nice views though. One of his favourite things was to take sandwiches, a chocolate bar and 'Survival Kit' in his Dora The Explorer rucksack and go and sit on a bench next to the A road. Come rain or shine . We spent many afternoons sat on that bench in the rain eating peanut butter sandwiches. Aw .

I hope you have had a lovely day OP.

HemanOrSheRa · 01/07/2017 17:23

Oh and yes to Garden Centres Sparkling. Lovely !

Tablefor4 · 01/07/2017 17:27

It's not just the children. I once spent 45 very happy minutes with my parents watching the trains be dispatched by the platform guards at Kyoto station in Japan. Then again, my mum is still disappointed if she can't sit on the front upstairs seat of a double decker bus...

BzyB · 01/07/2017 17:28

We stop in our nearest big station when we do the 2 hour trip to Grandparents, even though the station is only 15 mins away. The kids love it

TroubleinDaFamily · 01/07/2017 17:33

When DS was a bit older, probably six or seven we used to play the right left right game.
You turn off the main road and then after that presuming it is legal you take your directions from your co-driver.

We ended up on some properly narrow country roads where even the passing places were just a basis for negotiations.

He mentioned it at dinner the other evening, he is now 16, turns out we had never told DH. He looked at us as though we were certifiable.

This and driving the car (sititng on my lap) whilst in the car wash are some of his fondest memories.

Original poster

craftsy · 01/07/2017 17:34

We're back home now and DS is planning his next trip back. I think I'll avoid it on Saturday afternoons in future though. Toward the end of our time there coach after coach showed up and discharged children's and young teen sports teams so it got a bit too crowded. I'd probably have stayed another while and had a hot chocolate if it hadn't gotten so busy. But maybe it's just as well that I'm home now as I can have a glass of wine to celebrate a day well spent.

I'm tempted to go back some evening in the hope that DS will fall asleep on the way back, as it's hard to get him to go to sleep when it's so bright at night.

OP posts:

MycatsaPirate · 01/07/2017 17:39

I can't remember which services it is, but down south (probably on the M3) and they have one of those giant musical keyboards which the kids run up and down on and make musical notes. It's brilliant!

I used to take DD1 to the shopping centre first thing on a sunday morning when she was a toddler so she could run about like a mad thing when it was completely empty. Then we would get the bus back and get off a few stops early so she could jump in puddles on the way back.

sparechange · 01/07/2017 17:40

My SIL does this all the time!
There is a food court overlooking a play area and my niece and nephew think it's heaven!
They can't get their head around the novelty of being able to have a Burger King 'starter' and then Costa muffin 'pudding'
SIL gets some quiet time for a coffee while being able to keep half an eye on her DCs

And as a child, my favourite day out ever was to Heathrow. We would get the tube there (at least an hour) then walk around airside watching people check in, watch some planes taking off, get an orange juice and go home. When the school holidays rolled around, the first thing I would ask was when we were going to the airport
I think it was as exciting as if we were actually going on holiday!

EggysMom · 01/07/2017 17:47

I take our autistic son on long tram journeys around Manchester, he loves to see the world go by through the windows! Our latest escapade was to the Airport, where I discovered that sadly airports are not what they once where - there is now nothing of interest before security. But we did get on the bus out to the viewing park.

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