To avoid soft play during all this

[aristo]

I haven't taken my son to soft play since the pandemic started. Is this silly?

I know he would still love it, perhaps even more now he's 6 months older, and much bigger and stronger.

We haven't, mostly because I'm pregnant and would struggle to crawl round, but depending on the centre and standards I would think it's a lot less risk than somewhere like nursery where presumably toys are shared etc.

A lot of people do say their DC always get ill after soft play but we never found this, apart from the ball pit I suppose it's just like an indoor playground where surfaces are touched in the act of climbing etc but no individual toys shared - I imagine it depends on the soft play but that was our experience at the three near us

I found we got so many viruses from toddler groups/stay and play type environments where toys were shared but at that pre Covid time felt it was probably good for her to some extent as not at nursery

@grey12

Soft play??!!!! I haven't taken my kids to a playground since this start!!!

Playgrounds are alright, outside etc

Soft play??!!!! I haven't taken my kids to a playground since this start!!!

Outdoor playgrounds are a really, really low risk activity.

We're going at the weekend. I love it. Germs, well, whatever.

I’ve been really relaxed with Covid although always follow the rules but soft play is a step too far. Without fail for us a visit to soft play equals a virus picked up. So it’s a no from me.
I did take the kids to a trampoline park against my better judgement which led to a nasty cold with cough and all the palaver associated with that so won’t be doing that again

They are definitely open according to my local Facebook feed but are very quiet and two have closed this week for good as their businesses weren't sustainable because of the virus. I felt a pang of sadness about that - my children, now 14 and 17 had many happy days there when small. As per a pp, I also liked a cup of coffee and a sit down while they amused themselves at soft play.

I've not taken DS back to the softplay but mainly because the weather has been fine but we never really went much anyways cos I find them very expensive

I went back for the first time in ages. A lovely morning. Supporting a small business. I'm not going to sit around and think about it too much!

@aristo @BikeTyson

Very pregnant at the moment so have been considering myself isolation case during this pandemic. It was a family decision to not take unnecessary risks ;)

Not unreasonable at all.
I do feel for owners of softplay businesses at the moment with the loss of business (but not tooo terrible as it costs a small fortune each visit ), but every time I took mine when they were smaller at least 2/3 would fall ill! I wouldn’t want a small child anywhere near something that’s been slobbered/snorted/peed/pooed on right now. As vigorous as they may claim to clean it all... we’ve all been inside one. We know it’s only clean until they lift the j cloth off!