Entitled parents need to keep older kids out of the young section of soft play

[fancyeatingout]

I go to soft plays with three sections:
Babies
Under school age
Older kids

My baby is immobile, while the baby section at soft play is tiny it's still bigger than the space at home and so a space place for her to learn to crawl and the different textures, alongside the sights and sounds, is great stimulation for her. I go first thing on a Sunday to try and go at a quiet time.

Everytime I go much older kids come into the baby section, I understand, they're young they don't understand, but I've had several occurrences where the parents seem to encourage the older children. Last week one such parent asked me to remove the soft crocodile propping my baby up, today a dad told his kid, "you can play in here as long as you play calmly" as he encouraged the older child in, only to then stand and watch as he constantly dive bombed in the ball pit, meaning no babies could play in it. I had to be THAT person and ask staff to intervene twice to remove older children today.

I recently saw a TikTok where a SEN parent of a 7 year old filmed and criticized the parents of babies for not being more understanding when her kid entered the baby section and proceeded to throw large toys at the babies. I understand the child's needs, but given the parents would have known their child couldn't adhere to boundaries, could they not have gone to a specific SEN session.

Am I unreasonable to expect parents to leave the baby space for babies? Everything in it is available in the other sections and it is the only space parents of babies can go.

You’ll get better at advocating for your baby.

No, you seem to feel entitled to judge anyone that disagrees with you, baselessly labelling them as the parents letting children into the wrong sections. "Charmless" is far too polite.

How can anyone disagree that a parent who's paid for their baby to use the baby section that older kids aren't allowed in, is in the wrong to not want older kids in it?

For goodness sakes soft play is no place for a baby. Soft play is no place for anyone. Honestly your child can't talk so can't ask to go there. Why put yourself through it?

The baby section is for the siblings of kids who nag and pester to go there. I'm assuming you don't have older children due to your attitude towards them at the soft play.

I will say though remember as well babies and tiny tots should not be in the older section with a parent that is also as bad.

Of course your child should be able to use the age appropriate play area without children who are not that age being in there and putting her at risk.

Some parents are just entitled and lazy, thats a sad fact of life.

You are right, once they are at that awkward not yet walking but wanting to explore stage its hard to find activities in poor weather that are suitable. You cant exactly let her crawl around the park today (or at least not where I am in the midlands, it's pouring, muddy and fairly chilly) and why shoud you when there is a business providing a space aimed at your daughter's age group.

I'd keep on telling the staff and parents of the kids that shouldnt be in there and not give up. There is plenty of space for bigger kids to play in soft play

Soft play baby section is just a recipe for catching every mucous born infection going with a side order of worms if you are unlucky. Swimming is probably a much better activity, or a rug in the park if it’s not raining.

She has said other things that are far easier to disagree with.

I sympathise with the OP but was always aware, even when my kids were tiny, that the massively reduced rates for under 2/3s at almost all our local soft plays meant they were never going to be the priority customers.
I always operates on the assumption the 2 and under sections or under 2 sections were predominately there for people to have a place for younger siblings when they took the kids of an age to actually play in soft play and to have a bit of a market for term time school days.
Where we live we were fortunate to have one very small soft play and one play cafe that were specifically targeted at pre school kids. I generally found they were a lot better when kids were teeny as even the older kids would have someone keeping an eye on them
and many of the 3/4 year olds were with a younger sibling so good with the babies or told to go elsewhere by their own parents.
While I don’t think you are wrong that bigger kids shouldn’t be in the baby area and I did make it clear to mine they couldn’t once they were too big I also think it’s not something that’s going to change. Being pragmatic you are probably better looking for a venue locally aimed at only very young kids. Places we found worked well aside from that to let the kids explore in a safe space were baby/toddler classes for things like messy play, dance or music and small play areas in a couple of local museums that never had particularly boisterous kids around. Is there anything like that available near you?

OP spend the money you'll save not going to soft play on a nice robust all in one waterproof like muddy puddles and let them crawl around in the park.

Soft play is filthy and full of bugs. YABU for thinking it is a good place for a child who is just learning to crawl. You've got years yet of soft play fun.

According to who, because none of the websites for the soft plays have stated that the baby section is solely to be enjoyed by those attending with older children and babies, rather than those coming just with a baby do the age range advertised.

Some soft plays run a baby session during the week for mums to meet and babies to roll about. Other than that I can’t imagine choosing to be there if I didn’t have older children. They are very dirty germy places.

OP you aren’t wrong. Of course older children should stay out of the baby section. They have their whole massive own section of the soft play.

It’s lazy parents, and lazy staff, that’s all.

I hated this when mine were babies, and now they are slightly older I always stop them going in the baby/toddler section (even if it means splitting them up as siblings). Because the safety of small babies is important. It’s not hard.

This also annoys me at soft play as I have young kids, but at some of the ones local to us I find the labelling is really poor so it’s not always clear which area is just for under 3s. Also the staff should reinforce this but they don’t at all.

Then you lack imagination. For toddlers aged like 12-20 months a baby soft play is the perfect place for them to learn to walk and explore. Babies/toddlers that age desperately need this kind of physical development. I lived in a flat and didn’t have the space. I always took my young toddler to soft play.

There’s a ton of other stuff to do with older children, but soft play is one of the few options for toddlers.

"My older kids are entitled to go in the baby area as they are used as childcare so I can ignore and drink my coffee in peace" 🤣

Take them for a day out at farm or something like that instead, it’s stimulating as well as the fresh air. Also look to see if you have any play centres near you that are aimed at babies exclusively, we have one near us (South Yorkshire) that opened about 6 months ago, its soles aimed at under 2. I’ve never actually been as I have a 3 year old as well as a baby but it does sound like a good idea.

We do occasional soft play and I only let my
eldest into the baby section when there are no other babies in there other than his little brother or our friends babies. If any others come in I send him back out to play in the big section.

Some parents always take their older brats to younger areas/sessions and it boils my piss too. Shouldnt be allowed as its so dangerous for the little ones and theres no excuse.

This is something I've recently discovered as a new mum. I like taking my baby to soft play, where he can crawl, stand, learn to walk & explore safely. It gets us out of the house for a bit too.
There are certain times of day I avoid going due to big kids playing in the baby area. I don't go after school hours anymore because I was constantly having to move my baby out of harms way as the bigger kids would be running & jumping around where he was playing on the floor.
I'm too nervous to say anything incase one of the parents gets shitty with me.
Sometimes the staff will ask the children to go & play in the older kids area.

I took my baby to a specific under 5s soft play and it was really good for her development of gross motor skills with reduced risk of hurting herself. It was run by SureStart so well policed! @fancyeatingout you are right want to take your kid to safe space without older children invading.

A good strategy is to call them a baby. If they are in the baby section then they must be a baby right? Worked for me....

Yanbu for unruly kids although - I do think it's different if they are acting as a helper though.

Completely agree OP. Older kids should be asked to
go to the correct area. It’s really not about need or SEN in my opinion, it’s because older children can’t really play safely in these chaotic places with young babies. It’s the size of the child that matters here , they need to be in the correct area for safety.

I completely agree. A lot of people commenting here that you shouldn't take your baby must have plenty of space at home for baby to learn to crawl. In a small flat, in bad weather, when baby is just starting to crawl and desperate to be free to practice (not cooped up in a pram or high chair) there is literally nowhere else to take them... I spend my life in soft plays with my 9 month old when the weather is bad! Yes I'd much rather be in the park but it's England and it rains constantly!

I so wish there were more places to take crawling babies

Some crazy responses here. Of course YANBU, I hated it when DD was young and even though she has always loved the baby section (even as a big girl of seven now!), I only let her go in it completely supervised for a few minutes if it’s empty and as soon as someone even enters the soft play room with a baby or small toddler I get her out of it immediately. I also lived in a poky flat with no garden when she was very young, so the very local soft play was a godsend for us physically and mentally!

lots of people with poor comprehension or looking to be offended on this thread.

I have a baby and always have to protect him from the older kids in the baby section. It’s clearly marked as for 0-2 only and very boring in comparison to the older sections but they can’t help themselves. I guess people take older kids there to burn off some energy whilst they have a sit down! There’s certainly not much supervision by parents at the ones I go to.

I think it's inevitable so yabu. They ate really busy even for preschool children on the weekends so I wouldn't take my baby. Its a very black and white attitude to have although in principle you are right. Its also very judgemental to assume parents aren't watching and that is that simple to manage. My issue is under 2s tottering around the softplay unsupervised. So dangerous! That is poor parenting.

Are you back at work with a baby that is learning to crawl? Nursery/whoever is looking after them may be able to help while you're at work.

Try a smaller soft play like in the garden centres. We have 3 little cafes near me with baby softplays and a farm that has one, there are toddler groups and even weekend baby groups and libraries that are good and far quieter to go to. All of these aren't appropriate for preschool or primary aged children so all in all there is quite a lot for babies.