Just had a disastrous visit to Legoland with DS (3)

[Marnie74]

Our DS is just over 3 and he's always been rather sensitive and shy, but since he started preschool in November he's "improved" an awful lot. When I say he's improved, I mean where he was pretty terrified of people (adults and children), he is now a lot more confident - he happily chats to adults and doesn't run away from children as much.
Anyway, we took him to Peppa Pig World last year and it was pointless. He didn't want to go in the gate and he was too frightened to go on any of the rides. Utter waste of time.
As he's been at preschool for 6 months and he's got so much more confident, we thought we'd take him to Legoland. What a mistake.
Again he was terrified when we got to the gate, he cried for ages when we finally managed to encourage him in. Then he whined and whinged the whole day (literally for 5 hours), refused to go on any rides and even refused an ice cream. When we asked him why he didn't want to go on the rides he seemed to talk about them being "scary" for some reason. The last 15 minutes however were brilliant - just as we were leaving he ran around like a mad thing popping bubbles and laughing hysterically. I try not to think about the £75 entrance fee and the (free) fun we could have had in the garden with bubbles.....
I suppose my question is: have any of your children started off hating theme parks but have suddenly learned to love them when they got older? I'm conscious that he's only 3yrs old (although there were loads of other kids of his age and younger that were loving it)?

Another one here with a child rather like this. Dd3 is 5 and probably would like Legoland BUT if she looks at something new and doesn't like it then you have a hell of a job on. Hand-dryers and other loud things can be very scary. She started school in January and it's not been totally plain sailing, but we're getting there. I rememember having to have her arm x-rayed last year. She got so scared :( At the same time she is also very curious and strong willed. This gives a somewhat confusing picture to outsiders I think. It's quite hard to 'get' children like this. When you get her to work with you she is amazing.

My DS isn't bothered about noise etc at all, but I took him to an indoor water playground thingy last week, and he basically clung to me for an hour. It was echoey (sp) and noisy and had a big bucket thing and unexpected water tumbling down and he just hated it.

Luckily they had a kid's pool which was much quieter and he liked that.

I also echo the zoo - my DS is coming up to 2 and he spent more time looking at the leaves next to the elephants, than at the elephants themselves.

Threadwatcher, there are plenty of very young children who do enjoy theme parks. I practically lived in Leogland for the toddler years with my not so sensitive dts! We live around 15 mins drive from it, so like lots of other mums in the area, I had season passes for a few years, the toddlers then get in free. They loved it, went on all the rides, saw the shows a couple of times a week, play parks, water park in summer, playing with Lego in the rain. It was a godsend for me to be able to go somewhere enclosed and traffic free with them given their tendency to run off in opposite directions. Legoand is lovely on a weekday early in season with no queues or crowds.

So I do think it is an overgeneralisation to say they are a waste of time for all 3 year olds. Though I agree, if they don't like it, I wouldn't bother until they are older.

I don't know about the peaking thing. Maybe to a degree, since the dts now find Leogland babyish but have a good 3-4 years before they can do thorpe park!

My DS1 is like this and he's nearly 7. He has improved, and continues to do so. As far as playgrounds are concerned, though, he still doesn't really get them. He'll play happily around the equipment, but won't go on anything.
I feel the same about theme parks. I hate them, and don't get rides at all. :)

I love this thread : ) I thought my nearly two year old was the only toddler in creation not to be interested in the zoo. We had her there a couple of times and she had more fun splashing in puddles than looking at the animals. She'd far prefer to run around a playground. And even that, she'd rather do in the rain so there won't be any other kids there!

I'm still going to free things (my DS is 2 and 7m), tho we do also have a local farm that has a great playground in as well so thats great and he likes a local softplay centre which is £3.50 to get in but worth it as he'll happily climb in there for 2 hours. The only thing I've really paid for tickets for him was a very recent visit to a zoo which he really liked and I was thankful that he and the other kids that we took did enjoy it and walk around quite well-behaved and interested in the animals, it could have gone so much worse. Really at this age I wouldnt bother with really expensive days out, theres too much pressure for it to go well especially as yours is sensitive which isnt unusual at this age either :) garden and bubbles every time!! best wishes

We took DS2 for his 3rd birthday and he hated everything about it, whinged, wined etc. I took him again 2 weeks ago (he's 4 in July) and he loved it, still talking about it constantly, he went on the little roller coaster, all the small rides and every day asks when he can go back.

Wait till he's older...he will get more pleasure out of playing with bubbles in the garden

What a sensible child. :)

Suggest taking him to quieter activities instead. Co-incidentally these are usually cheaper, so it's win/win!

How about:

• story time at the library

• petting zoo

• minibeasts (snails etc) in the garden. also bubbles of course! + paddling (weather permitting).

• going to see trains, boats, aeroplanes (they can be noisy but they're at a distance).

• all the usual things in the park (swings, slides etc)

• adventure playground

also, seaside!