Soft play hell

[Higgeldypiggeldy35]

I live near a small soft play which I take my 3 year old and baby to regularly as it's one of those soft plays that you can see your kid wherever they are and it's never super busy as it's quite small, it's very clean and the owner is lovely.
Today there was a lady with her 3 year old twin boys. She basically ignored them the whole time with her nose in her phone, except to give them each a mars bar which they then carried around the soft play smearing chocolate all over the place. Once high on sugar they were literally climbing the furniture (not soft play equipment) knocking over the hand gel stands and playing with the hand gel, throwing the soft play equipment at everyone, and taking over the baby are which is 2 and younger. They screamed at the top of their lungs the whole time! My head is banging. The only time mum looked up was to say 'pack it in' to them when they were playing with the hand gel.
I felt sorry for the people working there as the owner wasn't in and both were quite young and they didn't really know what to do. I had to tell the boys twice to be gentle in the baby area and stop the bringing in wheelie bugs into the baby area and snatching my son's own toy off him.
I really wanted to say something to the mum but honestly I didn't know what to say that wouldn't have got a very defensive reaction. What should I have said if anything? It's so frustrating as they ruined the experience today. Perhaps they had additional needs, I don't know, but that doesn't excuse mum just sitting there playing on her phone and failing to parent full stop. Grrrr

Every time I get a little bit emotional about my kids not being little anymore, I remember that I no longer have to endure soft play, and it cheers me right up. I feel for you!

If you don’t have a banging headache after soft play you are doing something wrong!

@randomdent haha, usually I quite like going as my son loves it and I get to chat to people while my baby crawls around the baby area but I felt like I was fire fighting someone else's kids today!

I'd have gone over and told them to stay out of the baby section as they're big boys and little ones are smaller. If their mother won't parent them then someone has to.

I'm quite proud of my stern stare and 'is that kind'? Routine

I am sitting at the soft play as we speak! Nose in phone while I type this

But of course yanbu. You can't leave two 3 yo children to their own devices entirely. And their behaviour sounds pretty bad.

I don't think the young staff members should be left on their own if they aren't confident enough to step in, but of course the mum was the U one here. That's unacceptable.

Yours, a mum in soft play on phone

The staff should have said something if they're posing a danger to other customers.

The screaming is par for the course though.

Well, the owner of the soft play isn’t that great if they leave people in charge who don’t go over and politely tell mum to keep her kids out of the under 2s, or say, “no food on the equipment”. I think I’d be most annoyed about that! Though yes, also annoyed with the parent. I’d have spoken to the staff though and I expected them to do their job.

Look on the bright side OP- you only had 90 minutes of them- their mum gets to bring them home with her

The staff should have stepped in, the owner shouldn’t be leaving staff who aren’t confident enough to ensure the rules are followed and that the experience is enjoyable for everyone in charge. The experience was ruined because the staff failed to do their jobs, not solely because of the other mum. Make a complaint to the owner if you weren’t happy with what happened.

I get your frustration but seriously, don't worry about it. You'll always get all sorts of kids at soft play. My own Ds was probably seen as a bit wild and I would often get judgmental stares - I did follow him around closely though as he couldn't really play alone. When I had my youngest I'd just leave her to it.

It didn't really affect you. Yes they kept coming in the baby area but again they don't really cause any great harm to you and your children.

It was up to the staff. They didn't do anything so it's definitely not your place to say anything. It sounds like they could do with someone older and more experience working there alongside the younger staff, who aren't afraid of saying something.

I am glad mine are too old for soft play now 😂

It won't be the first or the last time that you'll get the feral kids at soft play - part of the deal I think 😅

I thought sugar high had been debunked

I can remember this so well. My babies went from being bashed by older kids to then being the older kids who wanted to play in the baby area 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

It’s an odd transition but the major difference is I was never the mother who didn’t engage with their kids and had my head in a phone. Those parents piss me off even now at parks and soft plays across the land. Watch your bloody kids!!

Also I do peruse Mumsnet whilst having a coffee at soft play, it's lovely me time! But I keep one eye on my child at all times.

Meh, not all of us are judgmental twerps who make sweeping statements like sHeS a BAd PErsOn, it's one snapshot of her day and getting wound up (or even noticing) about what another person feeds their kid is dickish. I'm pretty sure you have had less than perfect parenting moments OP, hopefully no one is sitting there judging you while you did 🤷‍♀️

@FreedomFaith I think you’re being a bit aggressive here. I’m sure the mum of twins wasn’t being perfect but neither is your judgment of her based on incomplete information.

@op If it’s any help I would probably have told the kids to move out of the baby area too and then had a quiet word with the staff asking them to remind the other mother about older children in the baby area when they still didn’t move. It’s totally not unreasonable to be annoyed though!

@yourfinestpantaloons I wouldn't have noticed what she fed her kids if they weren't smearing chocolate all over the place. That was my issue, not what she was feeding her kids. For all I know the kids haven't had a treat in days, she can give her kids what she wants but not supervising the aftermath is dickish.

@moonlightapple if the owner had been there I probably would have had a word, to be honest she would have stepped in before it got to that point but it was two youngsters who arguably shouldn't have been alone unless confident to intervene but they were also very busy preparing food