To not let people take our chairs

[Girlof6]

At a soft play, you have to book to be there. We got there early and got a table and 7 chairs, there are 2 adults and 5 kids. We ordered lunch, and had several people keep coming up and asking to take the chairs… I said no sorry as there are 7 of us and we’re about to eat but once kids have eaten they’re free. Surely it’s ok to not let people take them? Someone even said well you don’t need all of them? Well yeah, I do. I have paid for us all to get in and for lunch so we want to sit on chairs! Been getting evils from everyone and it’s made me paranoid 😳

Personally, I'd have had everyone seated once we ordered because at that point (and that point only), I'd want the chairs I'd gathered to remain "ours". What I wouldn't do is turn up at 10am, keep 5 chairs forthe 5 kids who are playing for 2 hours, and then order lunch at 12. I wouldn't hog the chairs for the duration of our visit.

It depends, were all of you going to eat or just the kids, and did you order the food to come out right away? If the food is coming out very soon, and you’re all eating then this is fine, but if only the kids are eating I’d expect to only have enough chairs for them to eat if it’s very busy and not enough chairs for everyone, and if the foods coming out later then I don’t think it’s right to save the chairs for a long time when the kids are off playing.

Depends how long you'd guarded the chairs tbh.

Not enough information to pass judgement 👩‍⚖️ 👩‍⚖️

Sorry I think thats unreasonable. My kids sit for 10 minutes to eat then go back playing so I would assume you pretty much kept at least 5 chairs mostly empty.. I would have put a child on my lap to eat and given up a couple of chairs for an adult. I mean it's soft play

If you got there early and kept the chairs for a significant amount of time before lunch then yes YABU. Hoarding 5 chairs so the children could sit for at most 20 minutes to eat when others wanted to sit down is pretty selfish behaviour.

The trouble with letting people take the chairs until the food comes is that you risk not having any chairs for the kids to sit on and eat if it is as busy as it sounds.

I wouldn't want to have to sit and eat with a child on my lap, or have to stand so I don't think yabu at all.

Fair enough, once the kids have eaten, you don't realy need them as the kids are likely to want to go off playing so I'd give them away after food.

How long were you hoarding the chairs for?

In my experience if you have to book to be at soft play then it’s for a short period of time and nobody feeds their child much as it runs the risk of them vomiting if they are then being very active.

I can’t imagine keeping five empty chairs at my table and making other adults stand just so my children could eat for what probably amounts to a few minutes.

Yanbu. Kids are entitled to have their own seats whilst they eat.

How long did you reserve them before you had lunch?

Was it a large table which had 7 chairs around it? Or was it a 4 seater and you took extra chairs from other tables?
if they are chairs at your table originally I’d say it’s fine to keep them but perhaps after eating let them go.

We got there and ordered straight away. Food came about 20 mins later, we all sat and ate. It was a large table we didn’t take chairs from anywhere else. Once kids had eaten I offered them to the people near us that were still standing

Only 20 mins ish while we waited for the food we had ordered. If I’d have let other people take them we wouldn’t have all been able to sit and eat

All 5 of my kids sat and ate for a good 15 mins before going off to play again.

I think that's fine. Don't give it another thought.

So nothing happened really. You had at most 20 minutes of people asking for a chair, you said no, you ate, they got a a chair after.

All in all a non event

I wouldn’t have given up the chairs either. I’m not trailing round begging chairs back when the food is sitting there going cold.

I’d say you were fine then.