To think this can't be true about play centres?

[JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows]

Seen this this morning on Facebook from a trampoline park/soft play centre - surely it can't be true? Too many safeguarding issues - My kids are 5 and 8 and I wouldn't leave them alone inside a play centre. I'd sit in the cafe/seating area and look out for them but parents can't possibly be expected to leave their 4+ year olds (they clarify in the comments that it only applies to kids 4 and over) alone?

[ParadiseLaundry]

Isn't it May 17th for Soft play and cafes etc to open?

[Butwasitherdriveway]

[quote JamesMiddletonsMarshmallows]@Butwasitherdriveway you're a teacher too, ah, then have all my gin yeah we do fuck all, just put our feet on the desk and hope for the best ey [/quote]
Boris is quite right. It's about time we all just got back full time after all the time we had off.

[tiredmum2468]

Not a
Chance on earth would I leave my kids with randomes I wouldn't be going

[bonbonours]

It's because children's activities are allowed under the rules, adults sitting indoors in cafes isn't. So the only way they can open is as a supervised children's activity.

[Graciebobcat]

Teenagers now as opposed to a few years ago are now somewhat...different

Oh what absolutely generalising, bigoted tommyrot.

[ineedaholidaynow]

@tiredmum2468 I assume you don’t have to use holiday clubs

[Trixie78]

@ineedaholidaynow

It will be like sending them to school/nursery. It’s not like you will be the only parent sitting outside and all others allowed in.

It's not really the same as a nursery you've spent time finding and getting to know the fully trained and DBS staff members. Who do you know at a soft play centre. You're leaving the kids with strangers and assuming it's safe. Wouldn't leave my kids but then it wouldn't be fair on the staff for me to do that anyway, bloody kids are feral!

[raegan9980]

This is for trampoline sessions and not soft play which are unable to open until May. Good on this business for following the guidelines correctly. The COVID regs clearly say that supervised activities for the u18's must not be supervised by parents. That is why the activity must be supervised. Parents spectating, or waiting in a separate area is the mixing of household indoors which we cannot even do in our own private homes until next month. Pubs etc are also all outdoors. I take my daughter to her dance class, leave her at the door and then pick her up. This is the same. If the children are too young or a parent feels they are unable to leave them then its simple....wait until next month when you can spectate.

[RubyFakeLips]

Genuinely surprised as I wouldn’t have any issue with this. I’ve never understood the hanging around aspect and am also surprised OP is saying she hasn’t done drop and go parties but theirs are 5 and 8. This isn’t the norm in my experience. My local soft play used to hold exactly these type of ‘supervised’ sessions for 3 upwards and I was out of there, or in the carp ark if I had nowhere else to be. For unsupervised sessions I would be in the cafe, and expect them to come and find me, keeping an occasional eye. Others have mention IKEA, people often leave youngish kids there.

For reference, I have 5DC ranging from twenties to one still at primary, and I do think parenting as become much more intense and helicopter in style, but also depends who you mix with.

In Chat yesterday there was a thread about the Yorkshire shepherdess, with many praising how free and unsupervised the children are, seems at odds with this thread.

[Butwasitherdriveway]

@Graciebobcat

Teenagers now as opposed to a few years ago are now somewhat...different

Oh what absolutely generalising, bigoted tommyrot.

Bigoted?

I work with teenagers so that would be a strange role. I don't think you understand what that word means.

However, since you want to be ridiculous-

The age of marriage and having children's is significantly higher than it used to be, as is the age for certain legal things.

Less people are leaving school at 16 than ever.

Conscription is no longer a thing.

People are living with their parents well into their 30s.

And you don't think that any of those things has an impact on the maturity or mentality of young people, as opposed to my grandparents generation?

[ParadiseLaundry]

I think a lot of people on this thread (and the Facebook thread) seem to be under the impression that this is for soft play where a load of kids will be running rampage with no supervision.

But as others have said it's a supervised exercise session, like a dance class. Obviously people might not be comfortable with that anyway and that's their call to make, but I think a lot of people have got the wrong end of the stick.

[ParadiseLaundry]

Sorry that was in response to RubyFakeLips

[Circumlocutious]

What makes this different from other tennis/football/other clubs is that this isn't a consistent session format or group: it's completely adhoc, no idea who will be supervising at the time and their competencies, no idea about the groupings of children who are attending. It's not really a stable environment like all the others young children attend.

[tiredmum2468]

@ineedaholidaynow

I use a combination of childminder and holiday clubs but I wouldn't send them somewhere I had to wait outside and
Not have an idea what was going on

It's very difficult with covid but that sounds extreme x

[ineedaholidaynow]

But it is quite close to some holiday clubs that run which cover an area that has more than one school, so there will be children there that don’t know each other. They will be run by people that don’t have links to the schools, so parents and children won’t know them to start with.

[ineedaholidaynow]

But I assume you aren’t with them at the holiday club @tiredmum2468

[RubyFakeLips]

How do people cope with holiday kids clubs? I appreciate not everyone will have holidays where these are available, but sometimes we’ve been to resorts which have kids clubs or babysitting services. Often struggled as they’re fully booked! Those are strangers, doesn’t seem to bother many parents.

To clarify I’m not being intentionally critical, am curious, don’t think I know any parents who would refuse these opportunities.

@ParadiseLaundry you’re probably right.

[BodyRocks80s]

Not a chance, one of my DCs was rushed to hospital after collapsing and fitting at one of these places when they were 6. I wasn’t there at the time, my DH wasn’t watching as he was making sure our 3yo was ok. Our 6yo was part of a birthday party playing with their friends, luckily one of the mums saw they were about to drop and managed to catch them. It was horrible getting that call and rushing to the hospital, even worse when every-time someone asked what happened I couldn’t tell them as I wasn’t there. The staff were absolutely useless, had no idea what to do and all they cared about was that it wasn’t their fault, they wanted us to sign the accident register ASAP but never once asked how my child was. All the school parents boycotted the place after that. It wasn’t that my child had collapsed that was the issue, it was the way they handled it. I obviously wasn’t there so heard it all from the mums, they weren’t the type of mums to be precious about little things so I have no doubt it must have been bad.

[TwinMum20177]

They are opening on 17 May due to the harassment they received on Facebook. It was for supervised trampoline sessions anyways, as I believe the soft plays can’t open until 17 May. As far as I’m aware Environmental Health has said parents aren’t allowed inside to stop the spread of the virus, so better for older kids! I’m personally going to book them in for the soft play reopening to support a local business.

[MrsAvocet]

There aren't even supposed to be spectators at outside organised sports clubs etc "except for Safeguarding purposes" though I guess that is open to interpretation. At the club I help run we are asking parents to wait in their cars, or if they really feel they must watch to spread out around the perimeter and not interact with anyone outside their household. Personally I think that's a bit OTT now that people are allowed to meet in small groups outdoors, but it is the guidance from our governing body so we are stuck with it for now.
It's frustrating when parents get cross with us, as there is absolutely nothing we can do other than to follow the rules, whether we personally agree with them or not. If we don't abide by our governing body's rules our insurance is void, leaving us, and the children at risk.
I imagine most other activity providers are in the same position. Each parent needs to decide whether any given activity is safe for their child or not in the present circumstances, and then go or not go accordingly. The providers will be doing what are told basically and as long as they are making it clear in advance what the restrictions are I don't think there's a problem.

[tiredmum2468]

@ineedaholidaynow

When I drop my children off ANYWHERE I go in to check they are settled - I only leave them at the Childminder's who I know and the holiday club for my older daughter (6) run mainly by teaching assistants at her school and so she knows them.

This doesn't sound quite the same somehow

It's up to individuals as to how they parent and what they do but I am not in agreement of "waiting outside" and being kept out of it - as long as people wear masks and sanitise their hands how is it any different to being in Tesco?

It's a very difficult situation if places do this and people rely on them to work and I really feel for anyone in that situation

[UnbeatenMum]

For this to be done safely I would expect staff to receive extra training, DBS checks, extra risk assessments to be done, a much higher ratio of staff to children (maybe 1:6) and limited numbers. I also think children should be grouped into smaller age ranges. 4-16(?) is far too wide. They could split into age groups within a session and rotate around different equipment or limit sessions to certain age groups. So I think it could be made safe enough but has any of the above been done?

[Littlebitofmagic]

I apologise in advance because I've not read the whole thread so I might have missed something.

I work in a soft play centre. Staff are not dbs checked, at least not around my area. We are trained in safe guarding and first aid etc but we are not around children alone because it is a parents job to supervise. We are there for extra safety like if a child goes wandering off and a parent can't find them, or in the event of an accident etc but we do not take full responsibility for the children.

Trampoline parks may be different but I think its always worth checking individual places before you assume and take any risks.

[ineedaholidaynow]

If they are doing childcare type arrangements, which this is, then they will need to have DBS checks

[ineedaholidaynow]

I'm amazed soft play centre staff don't have DBS checks