My 18 month old hates soft play.

[DaisyLB]

I’ve taken my 18 month old DS to our local soft play a couple of times and every time he is just so upset. He hates it! As soon as we walk in he starts crying and then clings onto me likes he’s frightened until we leave. Has anyone else experienced this? It wasn’t that busy, there was only one other child in the under 2 part. He’s not had much experience in socialising yet but this reaction was a bit extreme.

How does he behave at other places like the park, library, playgroup or with friend’s DC?

He’s fine at the park most of the time, he can sometimes be a bit clingy. We haven’t started nursery yet although I’m looking to get him into the baby room once a week to get him used to socialising a bit more. He can be quite clingy when we go out but generally a happy boy. He hasn’t spent much time with other babies as all of my friends children are much older so I’m hoping that getting him into nursery will help. Although I am dreading his reaction being like at soft play.

Goodness me enjoy the time when you're not forced to go there as it won't be like that forever. He doesn't need soft play.

He's still only little you dont need to worry about how he socialises until he's at least 3 or 4.

He just doesn't like ot for whatever reason it's huge , bright and loud so fair enough maybe he doesn't fancy it.

I don’t think they need to go to Nursery to socialise. Under 3 they learn how to socialise by observing you. That does mean though that you do have to socialise yourself

So could you look to see if your library has age appropriate sessions and if there are any playgroups locally?

I wouldn't worry about not enjoying soft play. But from someone with a similar age DS I'd look at socialising him in different environments, stay and plays, baby/toddler classes, library groups etc.

Thank you, I’ve got a few classes were booked into coming up. Hopefully these will help.