To think places for children should open earlier?

[Crocodileintheriver]

Just seen this on my Instagram and could not agree more! Everywhere for children opens way to late, should be open earlier.

*close

No but as their parent surely you can do that too? By the time they're up, washed, fed, cleaned, changed, a bit of telly whilst you clean up, play with them for a, hit, read to them for a bit, let them entertain themselves for a bit, then leave a bit earlier so they'll nap en route if they still nap, another lot of food and nappies. It's hardly sitting with them in a barren room for 12 days!!

I would like to know just how many times you have personally done this ( entertained a toddler who regularly wakes before 6) ? DS was like this and I thank the stars above fir the places that opened at 8 or 9. Yes I also baked, crafted and jigsawed in the morning. When I had Dd (DC2) it took 3 days for the midwife to come round to check me as she didn't seem able to make it before 10:30am, by which time I would have had to take my high energy 2 year old out of our tiny 2 bed house for my own sanity. It was only when she realised that 2pm was a much better time we made contact.

Yes, I did all this of course, but in terms of my preference we regularly discussed how it would have suited us better to be able to go to venues much earlier, then come home, rather than have a long period of waiting around.

TBH we are just an early rising family I think.

Agree about parks. The other examples, perhaps those running them have to take children to school perhaps?

Children might not wake up so early if we did not persist in having GMT in winter but had BST all year round. One hour less for the OPs issue.

Everywhere opens at 9am where I am. Is the aim not to get them waking at a reasonable time (my eldest has never slept past 6am btw) rather than change our world to pander to them? Plenty to do in a few hours before the world opens, play, breakfast, walks.

Because most are open weekends and staff/owners would like a day off!

I went on holiday in the UK to a very children orientated place.
They had a soft play on site open from 8am till 10pm.
Neither of my DS sleep particularly well (3 and 5). It was so good because they did really understand parents and children.
We were the first family there every day at 8am on the dot (sometimes after already being on the outdoor playground). It was the week with the 40 degree weather and the soft play was air conditioned!
I hate being awake at 4 or 5am sitting around waiting for the day to start.

And the stupidest and most entitled post award goes to this one.

Soft plays are privately owned, almost community volunteering... how much do you think they make?

They have to pay ground rent for something the size a a small estate, heat it dispite it being the size of an air hanger (even when not open to stop mold), clean it, maintain it (major safety), licence/certificate it, hire staff (who have to be there when clients aren't to run all these checks) and for all this they charge you litrally pocket change.

Why on earth would they do that where the majority of clientel are busy and not going to be there?

The market has shown there no benefit in being open then, no one is going to risk their business because approx. 5% of parent think its a good idea (for the once in a blue moon they would bother their arses to actually go).

Having 1 or 2 parents and lets face it most days non for 2 hours before everyone else shows up is going to make them what £10? not enough to cover childcare costs for them and their staff to hire someone else to take their kids to school.

Parents that open these (self employed) so they can have a job that fits around their parenting needs and understand these groups are mostly for other parents in the same situation, a few PFB mams don't overcome everything else.

I understand it doesn't make business sense, if it did they'd do it.

The 'its too early for people to go to work' argument is ridiculous though.

Not sure that makes me stupid or entitled.

It's a fact that the vast majority of people start work before 10am and a lot of those people will have children. They all cope. So would the staff at children's activities!

Yeah it's annoying. Not really a problem in the summer because the forest parks and so on are open first thing but in winter it's still dark until 8am so you're stuck in the house really.

“Entitled”. Beep!

think you missed the point of that post, the poster was just pointing out that lots of people do start work before 9/10am

A local coffee shop would complain to us that we had a weekly "mums catchup" at Costa rather than their independent coffee shop. But they didn't open till 9.30, and we all went for coffee / drinks / snacks with younger kids after the school run. We didn't want to wait for 30 minutes for somewhere else to open. They ended up closing, which was a massive shame, but they missed the entire school drop off crowd by opening later

Out of interest why do you think GMT causes children to wake early?

I like alcohol so pubs need to open up late to entertain me.

I can't really the issue with the OP's suggestion. The market will decide - if people don't go at 8am, they won't open that early.

I agree getting to places on Sundays is difficult because of useless public transport - digression but if I worked for a rail company I'd say "yes you can have more money but you have to provide a Saturday service on a Sunday as well". Sunday rail services are rubbish, even when there aren't engineering works.

Yes indies can have very capricious opening hours. You'd have thought that if they knew there was a decent market, they'd have opened up a bit earlier.

In a lot of places, cafes open earlier on a Saturday now to make the most of the parkrun audience (people run their 5k and then have tea/coffee/cake/bacon sandwich/whatever) afterwards. Even if they only open at 10 on other days, they open earlier on a Saturday.

Makes sense to open when your market wants you, within reason, which is why I don't think the OP is unreasonable to suggest it, her local venues will know if it's actually worth it or not.

And so do staff at soft play etc. If the place opens at, say 9am, the staff will need to be there by 8, it's not a case of dropping the kids off at school at 8.50 and opening up at 9. As pp said upthread, things need to be done before it opens. Seems odd that many don't seem to understand that.

The "late" opening is not done for the benefit of the staff, it's done because there is not a market for opening earlier. Supermarkets open early, school teachers need to be in early, nursery staff need to be in early.
I live in a small town where most things are only open during working hours. I've often wished I could pop out and buy clothes at 8 pm, or take my kids to softplay at 8 am. I can't and I don't.
I could, however, go to the gym at 6 am and take my 13 year old to their squad swimming session.

Wanting to go to softplay at 8 am does not mean I can't entertain my kids - I didn't plan on spending the whole day there, it just meant I could be more flexible and do things to suit my family's routine.

I think we all understand that.

I think we also all understand that 8am is a perfectly reasonable time to start work and that this is already happening for millions of people (many of whom have kids!). Do you seriously think no-one starts work before 8am?! Are you campaigning for supermarkets to not open before 10am because of the poor shop workers? And buses/trains probably shouldn't run either because it would be ridiculous for the drivers to have to get to work before 9am! You can't be serious?!

Can I add, classes/activities for 1-2 year olds that take place at 1pm? I’m sure someone will come along to say that it’s perfect for them but every child that age I know is napping around then.

I think these things are all ultimately down to the market. Though I often despair at weekend afternoons with my three and wonder about opening a soft play…

Perhaps the owners couldn't open any sooner due to their own childcare, getting kids ready for school, etc?

Kids don't need constant activities from the minute they wake up. Play with their toys, crack open the playdough or stick Cbeebies on! If you must go out go for a walk of to the park. What a complete non issue.

No screen time recommended for under 2s, weird how the "you're all lazy parents for not entertaining your own kids" resort to such things 😉

Kids don't need constant activities from the minute they wake up.

Sure, but sometimes you want somewhere to be other than your own four walls, and for your kid to play with/alongside other kids?

The word entitled has meaning, the usage was appropriate... just because people don't like it doesn't make it untrue.

If people are at work before 9 they arent taking their kids to the soft play at 9 so it just doubles down on the point I made.