I just don't get on with soft play centres!

[electra]

Everyone I know with young children loves these places, but I must say that my experiences of them have not been all that great!

I never take my children to them, and never have although I suppose they are well past the peak age at which they are useful - ie - 7 and 5.

Today I went to one with a friend. Great I thought, lovely and clean (for a change!!) My friend informed me that many of these places smell of wee and poo because the children have accidents and nobody notices. My dd ended up hurting her wrist because she fell somewhere in the maze of stuff! (although in spite of this she wants to go again)

I don't know, to me they just seem so.....overrated. I would prefer to be somewhere else (especially for the cost as many of them are very expensive although the one today was not).

Perhaps soft play centres are just allergic to me and my children

Oh Shoshe, I'm a Dorset-eer too. Where is the one you go to? Or are we not allowed to 'name names' on here??

I can understand reservations - I don't enjoy the experience that much I have to say. But my 19mo ds does and he is so energetic that I get worn out finding ways to entertain him.

I wouldn't want to go every day but its a handy diversion if boyo is bouncing off the wall.

It is clean though - I would think very differently if it smelled of nappy. Yuck.

I love them! Where else can I jump in a ball pit / fling myself down a slide / bounce off a padded wall?!?!

Oh and DS likes them too

Have never been to any stinky ones though, maybe that would put me off...!

You don't get them because they are disgusting places. Children need to be outside - they don't need to be cooped up in expensive, hideous, smelly, garish, echoing money-spinners. GO TO THE PARK, PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Useful when dses were younger and I was on mat leave and at wit's end.

Now, agree, hell on earth.

Shitey, pissey, overpriced hell on earth, I should say.

Seeker, you are right about the park but in some parts of the country (OK Scotland) the rain can be unbelievable. Sometimes the DCs need some exercise and softplay has, on occasion, stopped me murdering my DCs.

Oh I was so glad when DD got to an age where people no longer had their parties at these places!

I lost count of the number of times I sat in our local Wacky when she was 3 to 5, drinking awful coffee and trying to make sure she wasn't being crushed by the kids who were obviously too big to be in there but who the young staff running the place were too timid to exclude and whose parents just wanted rid of them while they had a quiet drink.

One godawful weekend there were 3 children at her nursery who had separate parties at one or another of the local playcentres - each separated by an hour or so. The same tribe of depressed looking parents ferried their over-excited kids to each party in turn getting more fed up as the weekend wore on.

seeker - well you have summed up how I feel! But perhaps they have become a routine for a lot of people because of our awful British weather which has been no summers for the past two years...

I used to only go if someone had a birthday, but put my foot down after one place where I was hit in the head with a 2p piece thrown from a great height, gashed open my eyebrow, just missed my eye.

DD was terrified by all the screaming.
A couple of families arrived with picnic baskets and spread themselves over every table in the cafe so even if you purchased some vile food from the cafe there was nowhere to sit and the family were too big and threatening for the staff to dare move them.

That's it, never again, we joined the National Trust and DD runs round their acres of parkland and woods and castles while we have a walk.

And there is a playground locally which DD walks to...2 miles there and back, the walk tires her out nicely as well so I don't have to sit in the playground all day.

electra - and because people appear to think that their children are made of sugar and can't go out in the rain.

I tried to hand on a pair of wellies ot my sil recently, and she said "No thank you - my children don't need wellies - we never need to wear them"!!! for dns.

I bloody hate them too.
I have a lovely frined who always wants to go to them though. I have relented a few times,b ut God, did I regeret it. Filthy, depressing, cavernous, run-down, over-priced, dangerous shite holes.

We live near one and I will never go back again! The smell hits you as soon as you go in. The cleaning cupboard was left open, and a hoover was plugged in with wires all over the floor. There were loads of plug sockets uncovered, little things like that. The soft foam stuff that covers up corners and poles had been ripped off by some little terror and not replaced. And there were no staff upstairs at all to supervise, just a cctv camera.

It was dangerous.

The only staff that were there was a woman sat at reception and a teenage lad that served me a hot chocolate while talking on the phone to his mate!

They serve food but it's all chips and burgers, or out-of-date crisps.

I am a Childminder and if my house was this dangerous I would not be allowed by Ofsted to mind children. How can a place that is aimed at small children be allowed to get in that state and still open?!

Meh

At this moment in time, I love them. 33 weeks pregnant with chronic SPD and backache - at least I can sit down and read. I can't park near the park and can't actually walk there as it's too far at the moment. And yes, I feel bad for not walking DD2 to places, but it is almost impossible.

The roundabout in the park is too heavy for me to push without causing me pain, pushing on the swings involves pain.

So whilst I would love to take DD2 to the park, at the moment it's the local (clean and decent) softplay centre.

YANBU - they smell, they are run by 13 year olds, the are inhabited by feckless parents who don't give a shite who their child is torturing in the 'ballistic missile ball pool'. AVOID and don't feel guilty about it.

I loathe then adn so does dp so for dd its boots waterproofs and the local park (mud and all and believe me its very muddy)

So you don't like then then, nicky?
I like them if DH is at work, the weather's crap and I want to get DS out of the house for some safe-ish fun, but would never dream of going if the weather's half decent or DH is off too.
I vote for fresh air and a natural, not contrived environment every time.

Auntiebranflake it is in Sturminster Newton google softplay Sturminster and it comes up Intials for it are CP

I like them, nut then ours in clean and in term time it's virtually empty so ds's have it all to themselves.

On the larger equipment, you are supposed to supervise your dc's all the time which is great cos it means i get to play too , although ds1 wouldn't go on the long slide so i tried it out with ds2 on my knee. It must've been polished or something cos it was blooming fast, scared me to death and i actually thought at one point i wouldn't stop and would go sailing through the cafe and straight out of the door into the carpark.

Avoid it like the plague in holiday time though.

'but' not 'nut'

I don't love them, but I'm glad they're there to go to occassionally, on a rainy day in the school holidays.

They are the latest thing to look down on apparently.

I don't love them, but I'm glad they're there to go to occassionally, on a rainy day in the school holidays.

They are the latest thing to look down on apparently.

that angry face was meant for another post. it was meant to be jealousy anyway. my pooter is too slow for my brain.