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

@worldwide2 that's my experience too. Apparently there is research to say sugarhigh is a myth, I've just done some googling, who knew, old news apparently, never heard that before. But I still know my son and what happens to him if he has too much. Not that this was the point of the thread 😅

[quote Higgeldypiggeldy35]@sofiegiraffe know that's not right. I couldn't be bothered to do arts and crafts or play make believe or whatever today. I took him to soft play. I still supervised him. I'm criticising the other mum for not supervising her twin boys. I'm not criticising her for taking them to softplay so she can sit down for a bit, that's the perk of soft play. But you have to you know look up occasionally and check your sons aren't terrorising the baby area.[/quote]

Fair enough.

I don’t get why these type of posts consistently get people telling you that you should relax. Why would you relax when other children are purposefully hurting yours.

I supervise my toddler at all times, I don’t want her to turn into the toddlers that used to kick her and throw blocks at her in the baby area and laugh. I asked them to stop, the owner asked them to stop and the mother did not care.

This is what I always dislike about soft play, parents who can’t be bothered supervising their own children, so you end up having to parent them. It’s neglectful not to keep an eye on your children in a public place, whether it’s an enclosed area, or not, unless their of an age where they don’t need close supervision. The amount of times I saw toddlers walking around with dirty nappies, where the poo was coming out of the top of their nappies, or their faces were covered in snot, or they fallen and spent ages crying, unable to alert their parent, or they’d been hurt by another child.

You're right and I don't know why so many people seem to be intent on finding any part of your post to disagree with and make you out to be unreasonable. I particularly hated this part of soft play and you just know that the parents won't react well if you say anything because they'd be supervising in the first place if they were bothered.

I once tried to reason with somebody else's toddler for what seemed like forever (not quite in a soft play - a similar play area in a shopping centre but without padded flooring), telling her that it's not nice to block my son's access to all of the equipment, that she shouldn't hit him etc. She eventually tried to push him from the top of a slide (not down the slide either - over the side) and I had to physically intervene. Her mother had been sat next to me silently watching the whole time. I asked her to deal with it and she blew up at me telling me that her daughter was only two and how dare I say anything to her. I was apparently supposed to just watch my son being injured and not mention it. My son was even younger and smaller than her, so I'm not sure why she thought that made it ok.

Whether the supervising parent has had bad new or is tired or whatever is irrelevant. I'd had a bad day in the situation I'd just described - my son was being diagnosed with a medical condition and had spent his morning having more invasive tests on the children's ward. He'd developed a fear of hospitals as a result of all the appointments and testing and I'd wanted to cheer him up and take his mind off it after a morning of him being scared and crying. I couldn't afford soft play but the play area in the shopping centre was free. I ended up having to supervise somebody else's child instead while she sat there glaring at me.

My kids are older now and it's great to not have to deal with this crap anymore. Plenty of other crap to deal with though

@supertree I'm sure when I'm dealing with two teenage boys I'll be desperate for softplay politics again haha

If you go regularly and this was the first time you've had an issue, you've been very lucky.

I loath softplay with a passion. Too many parents (or where I am it's actually the childminders) who just sling the kids in and seem to treat it as free time. Thankfully it's always been ticketed where I am and the slots are an hour.

I've never been to a session and not seen at least one child totally unmonitored (I have a 8,6 and 3yo, I've had plenty if softplay experience)

@crunchymum thats why I love this soft play, since COVID they've bought in limited advanced bookings only so it's never busy. Maybe 10 kids max. I guess I have been lucky. I'll stay clear of the big ones, I don't think I could cope haha

I've endured soft play twice in my life and that was more than enough. I just can't get over the whole cesspit of germs vibes and the strong smell of urine, together with the situation you just described!

I hate softplay and actively avoid it at all costs, however much my DC may like it. I’ve been probably five times and my eldest is now 11. I just can’t stand it, it’s awful.

The title sums it up.Soft play is hell.That is all.

My twins are only 3 months but I also have a 3 year old so can imagine.

There’s always kids like this at softplay. It didn’t really disturb your day. Yes it’s annoying but you need to relax.

Also I think this is one of those moment. No twins no opinion…

I fucking hated soft play. I cannot understand when people post moaning the kids are gaming. I'll take The Fortnite Years any day over Monkey Bizz (you've got to be in the SE for that one).

Sorry, just had another flashback

Soft play is hell, I thought this was a known fact.

Sugar highs don't exist the high is situational usually, basically this kid is doing something exciting, being at a party or soft play or similar. As lots of people have said.

Coke has caffeine in it so the previous reaction could be down to that.

Parenting twins toddlers is bloody hard work so while her parenting wasn't perfect I'd give her a pass.

Although you don't want to hear it, pp is correct about the science behind sugar highs.
You notice the negative behaviour of your child after they eat sugar, and make the connection.
But that's besides the point.
Kids can be feral dickheads. They could have been on one all day, and she could very well have needed some time to switch off before monumentally losing her shit.
Shame it was at the same time you were there, but without knowing the ins and outs of her life, I'd just put it down to what was probably a dreadful day.
You'll have a similar experience one day where your children are being the spawn of Satan, and you'll hope you get a free pass too.

Oh op I hate soft plays! Just took my 3 children all under 5 to one. My 2 oldest are disabled so I do go into the soft play an never leave the side

Today Their was a table of about 15 adults sat in their all very large (not like size matters but seems to be the larger ones that tend to not move) all glued to their phones an more bothered about adult conversation to what the 10+ kids were doing.
This wasn't my issue-
My issue was they had 2 wheelchair children with them and got one of the older kids (must of been around 8) to take one into the ball pool, he was a Bonny lad so would of been heavy also
It was so busy, seaside town full of holiday makers- relevant to the story
The young boy was about 4 at most, couldn't walk or talk and was disabled. He got left in their whilst older kids were hammering balls around. Older kids WITH hard force throwing mind
This really annoyed me as the boy wasn't able to defend himself. So I told the older kids off and I had to help the young lad carry the child out of the play area whilst I had my 2 disabled children and a baby, all whilst their was a ton of adults who brought the children sat watching !!!!
Just didn't supervise the kids once.

Made my blood absolutely BOIL!!!!

not like size matters but seems to be the larger ones that tend to not move

Wha...the....f...

Oh @chocolatethunder that's horrendous! I think I got away lightly after hearing some of these stories. Although I have to say I am surprised by how many people think 'meh, no twins no opinion' as if having twins means you don't have to parent your children. The bare minimum should be occasionally glancing in their direction.

@lynntheyresexpeople apparently so, I've read about it this afternoon and found it very interesting as I had no idea. But I bet most people still wouldn't give their kids a very sugary snack just before bed because it wires them. I know the research says it doesn't. But after watching my child have a mini mars bar an hour before bed at a very non exciting event in the car on the way back from the barbers I can safely say he was bouncing off the walls which is not like him. I know my kid and what his limits are, regardless of what the research says.

@TSSDNCOP 😁 I anxiously await the Fortnite years haha

@Higgeldypiggeldy35

Oh *@chocolatethunder* that's horrendous! I think I got away lightly after hearing some of these stories. Although I have to say I am surprised by how many people think 'meh, no twins no opinion' as if having twins means you don't have to parent your children. The bare minimum should be occasionally glancing in their direction.

My sister had twins when she was early 20s, it's no excuse She's had more kids since and I'm not saying this but their all so well behaved! It isn't hard to watch them is it. Once a mum said my son pushed hers, wasn't that her son followed mine all around the soft play smacking him even when I said stop, then he fell as he can't walk properly to then say he pushed him. Hate people at times !!

@Higgeldypiggeldy35
Hope your sitting down relaxing now or best still in bed
Kids can be cruel sometimes