To be pisssed off that the local soft play centre gives priorities to b/day parties all day sat and sun

[lucyellensmum]

Today was not the first time i had to dissappoint my two year old because the ball park had no space. This was because it was running two concurrent birthday parties, so not only where there the children there, but their parents, the birthday childs grandparents, friends etc - honestly, its like a regular mothers meeting. The reason why this annoys me is that the place is clearly too small - the reason we go there is because its smaller and you tend to get less bigger children running riot. The place is obviously running beyond its capacity and must have to dissapoint lots of children, turning them away. It is a council run facility, i'm thinking of complaining AIBU?

yes

Yes, you are. 'regular mothers meeting' - what does that mean?

it generates revenue for them,they wont decline that.so yabu,find another back up venue

TBH I never took my under 4s to soft play places at weekends - it is the only time the older children and families can have birthday parties.

yes i also think you are, its childrens partys for goodness sake.

yes YABU. how would you feel if your childs birthday party was ruined by non-guests running around? as 3littlefrogs said, for many families its the only time they can have their parties

you're not unreasonable to feel disappointed for your child, but you would be unreasonable to complain I think. I assume if it's council it's subsidised? So good for people who don't have much money to be able to have a party for their kids. And, well, sometimes things don't go our way and we just have to suck it up. You want to complain because other people got there first? You want them to ban parties? Only allow one a day? You want them to save a space? I mean, sometimes you just lose out.

Well, you did ask.

What do you expect the outcome to be if you complain? That they turn away guaranteed income on the offchance that someone (not a mother, obviously, because you seem to disapprove of them meeting up) with a child(ren) turns up?

I can see why you'd find it frustrating, but I agree with the other posters. Children's birthday parties are usually on weekends and such places are popular venues. Couldn't you take your DD on a weekday? Everything's much quieter then anyway.

It's absolute hell finding a venue for kids' parties, as you'll find in a few years. And this one is probably less unaffordable than many.

erm, sorry, I agree with the others...YABU....tbh, imo, weekends and holidays are the time when I try to stay away from Softplay areas anyway, and I certainly did so, when my Kids were younger...

and actually, I think they are acting ratehr responsible to turn people down, ratehr then risking an accident by allowing more people in...

I never take my pre-schooler to soft play at the weekend. He likes to play in the bigger kid's areas and it's therefore just too dangerous when there are actually bigger kids in there. Fair enough - he has free time in the week to go when the bigger kids are at school.

YABU but I would be cheesed off if I was paying to get in with no warning that certain areas were being shut off.

by mothers meeting i just meant lots of parents sitting around talking, i was not disapproving. I also do not disapprove of the childrens parties either. They have a sectioned off area for these, but they over book and end up having parties in the normal seating area so there are NO seats left for other paying customers due to the high adult to child ratio. So it is packed solid and must be frustrating for both or all three of the parties being run at the same time. If i were holding a party for my child i would certainly expect it to be the only one at that particular time, i would have no problem with non guests being there. They are most definately not cheap, i cannot afford to have DDs party there. They do do private hire but not during public opening times.

I just think it is poorly organised. But clearly the consensus is that IABU, fair enough.

Can't understand why people getting offended though

sometimes i cant get into McD's for dogburger and pepsi or gregg's for da Beefy Bake

so we have to go for a fag and fruitshoot elsewhere

Who's getting offended? You asked if folks thought you were being unreasonable and folks did. How is that being offended? It's disagreeing with you certainly, but offended ??

i'm not offended either, totally understand u being annoyed as ur child was prob disappointed, but i thought u were unreasonable to want to complain thats all (which is the question you asked

i can't take DD in the week as i don't drive and we couldnt afford a second car anyway. I appreciate that these places are busy, but when the tables are taken up by an excess of adults and this is their criteria for allowing people in, it can be full, with only a handful of children present. Im obviously not making myself very clear, it is that there are usually more adults than children at the parties and they often have to stand around because there isnt enough seating. The point i am trying to make is, the place is over booked in my opinion.

Other places take the childrens name on entry and this determines how many are let in.

thankfully i don't smoke, and fruitshoot? is that like some sort of intravenous fruit injection??

I had a friend of a friend that used to manage a private soft play centre...Wacky Warehouse type place. Their insurance costs are astronomical. They have to get their business where they can to make up for quiet times or close.

lol lucy, I don't think there is actually any fruit in fruitshoot, really...but I can see how that name can confuse one to think there might be

lots of E numbers though, I think...so...I suppose it could be almost counted as the E of the Toddlerdays

is it not a bit like being annoyed because the local restaurants are all booked up with pre-booked customers, when you want to wander past and get some food?

I mean, that irritates me as well, (I wish I had booked) but I don't think I can really complain about it

I thought of taking my kids to a fairly new play area really close to where I live but the waiting time to get in at the weekends is usually about an hour and that's outside so I've decided we will never go. Would hate to queue that long to go into somewhere completely packed.

ah, ours charges £1 per additional adult (so one with each paying child fine, but any more then you pay), so you don't tend to get lots hanging around.

yabu - take your child to the park on such a beautiful day.