R.E paying for an extra adult at playgroup?

[Doglikeafox]

Hi everyone,
I've been attending a playgroup for a few months now with four children. Entry is £3 for the first child, and then £1 for each accompanying child. So it is £6 for my four children to attend. We love the playgroup, and it has always been well worth the money in my opinion. We usually stop in the cafe afterwards and purchase cups of tea, toast etc and we occasionally meet there with friends (who purchase their own entry separately).
My partner is off work today so decided he would join us too. When we got to the till to pay for our entry, we were told it was £8. When I asked the cost breakdown, they said it was £3 for one child, £1 for an extra child and then my partner had to pay for two of the children too so it was another £4 for the other two children. I said this seemed odd as we had been paying £6 for weeks and it didn't make sense to pay an extra £2 today when I was bringing the exact same amount of children. The lady responded that my DP was paying for 'the privilege of getting in'.
We had only brought £6 with us today, and I didn't have any money on me other than my credit card. I'm not sure if she didn't have a card machine or if it just didn't accept credit cards but she said I couldn't use that to pay so I then had to turn around and head home. The children were quite upset and I feel a bit naffed off. Surely you can't just stipulate that its £2 more because I had an extra adult with me? DP and I were quite obviously a family and not just two random adults trying to get in and pay less.
AIBU? I was really surprised that they turned us away, especially when there were no signs up or anything on the advertisement to say that the £1 per extra child only applied for one adult.

I am posting on MUMSNET right?

You are, and most posters agree that the cashier lady was unreasonable and petty.
Many posters like me don't really understand why your DH couldn't take the car to pick up some money, maybe miss 15 minutes of the group but be with you for the remaining time. You wrote that you went home with disappointed children, that sounds unreasonable too. It doesn't mean anyone agrees with the job worth lady.

It's a bit of a faff for £2 though.

Wow, that woman was an officious jobsworth!! I always found playgroups really welcoming, and I've never known anyone to be turned away at the entrance. Especially not a family that are regulars. You could have made up the difference next time surely. And surely you just pay for the children??

Why wouldn't you pay for your DH, you pay for your entry so therefore you'd expect to pay for his.

YABU

Why would two adults have gone in the first place?! Not a chance would I go to playgroup with DH and vice versa, it doesnt take two adults being bored shitless to take the kids surely?!

I have 3 dc (including twins) and on rare occasions dh had a morning off he would come with us to play group. It kept dc on their normal routine and made the hell of watching 3 dc at playgroup much more bearable. Why wouldn't dh come - he liked seeing the bit of their lives he usually missed due to work.

Playgroup woman was bonkers.

I go to a few playgroups, 1 charges extra for an extra adult as they provide free brews and biccies!
The others don't charge more as refreshments are for the children.
Ask for a sign to be put up.

I'd complain about not being able to pay by card. I've never come across a leisure centre that doesn't have the facility to pay by card - what about people paying for courses of swimming or gymnastics lessons or gym memberships? You don't generally have to pay cash for those.

£8 for a couple of hours entertainment for 4 kids is a bargain.

YABU. They clearly have to limit number of adults. Maybe they found people were bringing GPs and aunts and uncles so created this rule. It doesn't matter if you are a couple, they have to pply the rule fairly.

And would someone coming with their sister have been less entitled to go in for free than your DP?

Is the cafe only useable by people who have gone with children?

Bought some bags of sand from Wickes where if you buy 5+ they were £1.39 each (normally £2+). I also bought split bags which you get 25% off. I bought 10 splits and 12 normal. Till op tried charging me for the 10 at full price each with 25% off rather than 25% off the price when buying 5+. Price was more expensive than if I'd bought all normal bags. Pointed out her maths logic was flawed and did them for 50% off instead.

watfordmummy

RTFT

Good grief.

It's fine to charge for an extra adult...but they don't charge for adults at all...it's £3 for the first child then £1 for subsequent children...it's not hard.

What is not fine is to suddenly restructure the pricing on the spot which is what happend here.

If I went into a cafe with £1.50 because their coffee is advertised at £1.50 I would not go home for extra cash because they had randomly decided to charge 50p for cups. I'd go somewhere else or go without coffee.

I wouldn't have paid this extra if I did have extra cash on me...out of principle.

YANBU.

They don't "clearly have to" limit the number of adults per group. If they did, they would make it CLEAR. With a charge per adult clearly advertised!

The charge was advertised as being per child.

Also, what is with all of the insane PP suggesting that you are weird for not carrying more cash or wanting to waste a quarter of the playgroup time driving to a cash machine?!

JustMumNowNotMe Really, so people hate taking their children to groups? I always loved taking mine and my oh would always come along if he was off to see her playing with her friends and see what she enjoyed doing.

YANBU. How strange

Yabu. And like a op said you or dh could have waited in the car to save disappointing the children.

I'm genuinely astounded at the lack of mathematical ability on this thread (and the inability to RTFT, though that's more and more common these days)

OP, YANBU - the woman at the entry basically made up some rule. I suspect in the past people have tried to game the system, so I don't blame her for checking that you are all one family, but she would surely remember you from previous visits?

There are some complete and utter twats on this thread, similar to the play group woman!

Nit picking over cash machines, why two adults went, use of credit cards... all irrelevant. The woman randomly changed the pricing structure, that is what caused the problem.

YANBU OP.

Why are people assuming that the playgroup's advertised charges are that there is no charge for accompanying adults? I haven't seen this in OP's posts? It could just be that they charge £2 for an additional accompanying adult, but that the lady didn't explain this to OP well.

There is no evidence the cashier made up the rule. OP has always visited alone so wouldn't be aware of the charging policy for more than one adult.

If the cafe is linked to the playgroup, I would have asked if I could pay the cafe the £8.

*£8 via credit card

I wouldn't go all trading standards on them.
£3 to £1 is a very generous sibling discount.

If adults are free, then your four kids are paying £6 when 4 unrelated kids are paying a total of £12.

If you draw too much attention to this, the centre might reconsider this generous subsidy and perhaps go for £2 per additional child instead in future

I'd complain about not being able to pay by card. I've never come across a leisure centre that doesn't have the facility to pay by card - what about people paying for courses of swimming or gymnastics lessons or gym memberships?
This is what thought. I have paid up to $500 at a time at my local leisure centre. I would be gobsmacked, and making a formal complaint, if in today's world they expected cash for even a small amount.

I wouldn't go anywhere without my purse, can't imagine my dh going anywhere without his wallet.

Yanbu to think that it should cost the same, but neither of you going out with a bit of cash? Your call, but I wouldn't.

OP - she was being a jobsworth plonker. If it's charged per child then that means per child, and doesn't mean you pay for adults

I would interpret the pricing to be inclusive of a parent.

Unless of course, the playgroup is happy for a parent to leave their 4 under 3s with no parental supervision at the session whilst they pootle off to do whatevs. 💣

£8 for 2 adults and 4 kids sounds like bargain basement to me **

And I don't think it's a particularly good idea to attend a paying session with only the exact amount (unless you're skint). What if the prices had gone up?

No harm in asking them to clarify their policy though.

God. The playgroup I took my DD's to was a pound per child! Nothing else.

And the children got fruit, biscuits and milk or water!