To ask what your experience is with soft play

[aw1212]

Taking DS to soft play centre for the first time this afternoon.. I've heard a few horror stories on here and it has made me wonder what I should expect 😬

AIBU to ask for your experiences?

Depends on the soft play. We have 2 that we used to go to. 1 is excellent, in beside the climbing wall and has a Costa. Big enough that the noise level isn't sanity-wrecking.

The other is a bit dingy and the noise sort of echos around your head.

I'd say that so long as you don't go with an expectation of you having any fun then it will probably be fine.

The best time I had once was when DD was a bit older and we somehow managed to stay way beyond the paid for time (it wasn't particularly busy so I don't think they were really keeping a check on entry/exit times) and I had so many hot cups of tea and chatted to my friends via WhatsApp. She was thoroughly exhausted by the time we left and I actually felt more human.

In every softplay across the land there is always:

• a shrieking child
• a crying child
• a gang of boys running around
• a gang of girls running around
• a child who hits
• a big one in the toddler area
• a toddler in the big area
• a child who looks ill
• an abandoned parent who went in the play frame with their child, got ditched, and can't find their way out
• an overinvolved parent who thinks they're going a Blue fucking Peter segment on softplay, trilling to Little Timmy "look! A slide! Wow it looks fast! Shall we go down it? Let's go down it! Whee! Come on Timmy, slide down!" while Little Timmy looks like he wishes he was anywhere else but there
• a parent stubbornly ignoring everything their child is up to

It's basically Lord of the Flies for the under 10s.

Depends on the age of your child and the size of the soft play.

If the soft play is fairly small and quiet and your child is old enough to go around unaided, they can be quite enjoyable (I used to sit and knit/read).

If your child needs lots of help and/or the soft play is large and busy it's mostly just stressful and unpleasant.

They're really not that bad. I would encourage legs and arms covered though as the slides can give friction burns if not careful

Other than that, go and burn off little ones energy. Just make sure you wash hands after as it is definitely germ covered 😁

I have never had an awful experience but I dont find it enjoyable. My daughter is under 3.
The issues I have had are:

• older children in the under 3s section, pushing little kids out of the way etc. Parents ignoring this.
• taking small child in the older age section and having to crawl around with them which isnt much fun
• other children latching on to me because they want someone to play with them, following us around and wanting me to help them on the equipment

First time I took my toddler to soft play she got gastro. Ended up in hospital. Germ central, have gone again to a different centre and all was fine.

full of lazy parents who leave their kids run absolute riot without looking once from their phone or chatting with their friends blissfully ignoring their kids bullying little ones/ getting stuck and crying for help/ peeing themselves.

There's a special place in hell for these lazy CF.

Apart from that, my kids love it, it's good exercise to follow them around and it's really good fun. I wouldn't leave little ones alone, they'd get trampled by some of the older ones. You also see lovely kids in there, soft plays are not used exclusively by the worst.

I would stay away on rainy days from the ones notorious to be busy. I do like soft plays, my kids love them.

keeps socks on!

There are a couple of good ones around us. At 5 ds can wander off "safely" by himself. Dd at 20 months needs a lot more support but she thinks the under 2s bit is for "babies". Plus as someone else says, if you're in the bigger area with a smaller child, you end up with a bunch of other older but slightly scared kids wanting support too. I once had to help a terrified 5-6 year old girl down after she got herself stuck half way over the rope bridge and no one reacted to the screaming.

At my favourite, the food is good. They can't escape the building and it's an okay way to send a few hours.

And they stink of a combination of toddler poo, wotsits, disease and despair.

I think it depends on your objective. If you are planning on a quiet afternoon with a coffee you might be disappointed. Having said that I managed 2 coffees last time we went.
I conveniently forget to take cash for the ride on cars, tat machines, sweets etc which saves a lot of money and upset about whose turn/toy it is and means we don't come home with a lot of junk.
Definitely take hand gel and give everyone a good scrub clean as soon as you get home.

Mine are old enough now to go and play without me having to follow them around and what is most important to me now is decent coffee. When they were younger I never really saw any terrible behaviour, the kids always enjoy it and some kids can get a bit over excited but that's the same anywhere where lots of kids are together and having fun.

One piece of advice is be VERY firm about leaving when you decide it's time to go - my 2 are now used to me saying its home time and then leaving, having to negotiate with tired and excited toddlers to get them out of soft play is exhausting.

We go to the one in the gym early in the morning, no one else there and it's just been cleaned from the night before 🤷‍♀️

So glad ours are past all that (18 and 13). I bloody hate the places and you always get a couple of dads there being right dickheads on the soft play kit, generally in jogging pants showing a tonne of arse crack.

When my son goes he ALWAYS gets a cold or vomiting bug shortly afterwards. Always. Haven't dared take him since dc2 was born as I don't want an ill newborn!

Literal cesspits.

@aw1212 I think you'll be back posting later with "AIBU to think soft play is shit and I'm never going near it again"

Mine are to old now. But the key thing to remember is age restrictions are in place for a reason. As annoying as it is having big kids in the baby/toddler section it's even more annoying when parents a company their toddlers in the older section meant for over 3 or 4. They block the way and get annoyed at older kids acting boisterous, it's soft play older kids are supposed to act boisterous and run off energy. God forbid one of them accidently knocks over a toddler who isn't supposed to be there on the first place 😠

If your child is not school age never go holidays or weekends.
A 5yo.running round looks a germ ridden violent monster when you've a baby. Then you see the 10yos...

Go Monday morning when you won't have many other people there, and those will be under school age.

@Hoik
You nailed it

Ours is great. It's massive, an entire warehouse. There never seem to be any kids in it until the theme tune starts and the mascot lion appears. Then a swarm of kids turn up from no where and the poor teenage worker they've stuck in the lion suit has to run for his life.

@Hoik you missed the kid walking around with soggy spit covered food in the climbing frame even though the signs clearly say don't let your offspring eat on the fucking equipment.

Not all soft plays are made equally. Choose wisely! Some near me are grubby, poorly laid out, with miserable staff and I can only believe are a cover for money laundering. Others are clean, brilliant fun, and more contained so 3 year old DC can go off by himself. One doesn't sell chips or Fruit Shoots, which is surely a mumsnet win!

I conveniently forget to take cash for the ride on cars, tat machines, sweets etc which saves a lot of money

Those machines are only for the children whose birthday it is