Ideal world play centres - have your say!!

[maybecrazy]

Have name changed for this post as I believe owners/ vendors use this board! Am in the process fo buying a large childrens play centre in the north - this is not an area I have a lot of experience in although I d have business experience a 3 young children ... have been visiting places (borrowing ideas, seeingpotential etc and seen some great (and some horribe!) places - have money to invest in new place, quite a few ideas, but want so more real views, ideas, thoughts etc:

1. what would you do/ change to your local play centre to make it better
2. what woud you like to see included in indoor play cenres that isnt usually
3. what goes on the dreaded menu (and an idea of costs)
4. whats acceptable in terms of entry costs (taking my own dc's on research trip has cost me an arm and a leg!
5. besides clean loos/ nice food and coffee and clean equipent what makes these slighty dirty places bearable
6. any other thoughts/ ideas etc

Do you have fantastic local places that I should include on our list?!

Will of course carry out own research but believe MN to be a fantastic source of info and feel togther we can come up with the perfect recipe.....

Thank you in advance!

I think a SN session (even just an hour) at a sensible time once a month would make business sense as well. Advertise it properly (letters home to all parents via special schools for starters) and it would be very busy. I went to the first session fo a new SN activity arrnaged that way on Saturday. They'd got people to book (it was the whole day) so they tried to spread them out and it was still very busy.

Ooh fantastic!! All points duely noted - thank you ladies!! I will make a point of introducing a SN session and agree that Sunday am isn't the best time for any of us! The foods the bit I'm dreadinf to be honest (we all know what dcs want and what we'd rater they didnt have! so guess if its not on offer they cant even suggest it! Really like the sound of 'healthy bar' type food and drinks (presaume we're talking salads, smoothies, fresh juices, fruit, etc etc etc along with warmer, homemade options as well - and agree that good homemade stuff can be just as cheap and tempting as the fried/ greasy rubbish other places try to fob us off with!

Want to investigate the whole peeling off lid thing - I'd heard about this froma friend and think its worth a try - half and half etc.

Staff mix is going to e an interesting one - understand the centre is already staffed (mostly quite young i think) - anyone got any thoughts on this (it's not currently staff supervised ...) as its not a nursery I believe the staff are just that - staff, not qualified in childcare, nursery nurses, chef etc...

Thank you MN focus group!

If you have it free for adults and babes in arms you can get the NCT to advertise you to their postnatal groups. Eg. You could have a regular 'breastfeeding cafe' morning.
Might be a bit of a loss leader but the publicity would be free (opening session in the paper etc), great word of mouth and the new mums would keep coming even once they had to pay for it. We found postnatal groups in homes became too difficult when kids started walking and fighting over their toys so moved ours to a playcentre. Most towns seem to have 1 cafe that becomes an institution for new mums (eg John Lewis in Southampton) - it could be yours!

NO LOUD MUSIC. It is so bad for the children's hearing (and the adults' nerves).

Knife and fork meals and waiting times are tricky for parents so I'd prefer self-service grab and pay - saves on staff time too. Seems to me most mums are on diets so don't need the chip temptation.

I would keep the menu small/limited, esp re hot food, no more than 10 hot items and ideally edible with one hand. Classy pre-packed sandwiches/baguettes, good value funboxes for kids, few jars Baby Organix.

This means you can prepare most of it in the morning, you have everything you need in stock with no waste.

BTW if you contact Organix saying you're thinking of selling their jars/snacks etc, they'll probably give you loads of freebies to plug them.

I would love for there to be cleaning stuff available to the parents. Quite often if a drink or something gets spilled I want to clean it up myself but don't have enough wipes etc. If there was a station on the wall (above child height) with a roll of kitchen roll and a water spray it would make such a difference.

A clear discipline policy with instructions on who to talk to if your child is being attacked would be nice. I have had to leave a couple of places due to some very bad behaviour, and I haven't been back. If I had been able to speak to someone and let them handle the incident it would have been far more satisfactory.

One which doesn't smell of smelly feet would be great!

Toddler mornings where the music isn't blaring.

Private hire for parties.

most places are free for under 1s but i think it should be free for under 1s and non-walkers. ds has just turned 12 months but can't walk and i just walk in without paying and they haven't yet questioned it.

unlimited play is best unless it is really busy. partys are a good idea too.

ours has a bouncy castle and an indoor sports area. every saturday they do a soccor group for 1-5 year olds in there.

every morning is parent and toddler group and every afternoon they have a different activity on which includes free play after.

mondays is dancing
tuesdays is pottery and painting
wednesdays is music group
thursdays is baby signing
fridays is story and rhyme time

instead of horrible plasticky seats ours has big sofas to sit on and they serve gorgeous (and healthy) food like wraps, paninis and baguette amongst other things.

i love it cos there is no height restriction so i can go up too!!

agree an outdoor area and air con would make me more likely to go in the summer. passes are a good idea too.

oh yes and ours has a big monkey person who comes out at parties and also visits the hospitals. they also sponsor the local kids football teams and he appears at those.

magazines and newspapers a good idea along with some kids mags and books.

also good to have 3 areas for different age groups.

ours has under 3's, 3-5s and 5 to adult.

it also has beauty rooms which are a great hit with the mums. they offer a creche service so you can go off and get pampered whilst your kids go and play.

they hire out their sports area to local 5 a side teams and tennis and basket ball clubs too.

a clear solid floor area with sit and rides.
an under 5s area with all bits accesable to parents to rescue their toddler.
Ball pool NOT the only route away from the bottom of the slide. I have a boy who loves slides and hates ball pools, we don't go to our soft play cafe becasuse of this as he can't acces the one bit of it he likes.
Non echoy surfaces on ceiling and walls to reduce the noise level.

where will it be Maybecrazy???? I do hope its in North West cos I don't think there's much around here. Oh please!!!!

Agree that no horrid blaring music!

Parents not allowed to smack or swear at their children there. Chuck 'em out if they do.

The best one near us has BIG windows so that it seems really light inside as well as an outdoor playground with sand, tractors, climbing frames etc. It's middling-priced at £3.50 per child over the age of 1 (although I think to charge for over 2s would be better really). Food is mostly really healthy - paninis, toasted sandwiches, jacket potatoes etc and then homemade yummy cakes, flapjack, biscuits etc but no chips!

They have a separate wooden cabin for parties so that they don't take up space inside the main eating area.

The one thing I would love is for there to be staff inside supervising what's going on - not because I don't care or let them do what they like, but because it's sometimes really difficult to see what's going on inside and it's horrible hearing your child crying and not being able to get to them. Oh, and some sort of annual pass or prepayment discount (eg 10 tickets for the price of 9) would encourage me to go more often.

There is a great one near me (Romford) called kidsspace, and it is very good, but HUGE. check it out like i said it is VERy big so you probably couldnt do it all yourself straight away!! But look at their menus, very good and the pizzas are great and fresh, not deep fried like pizza hut!

One thing this doesnt have, which i think bigger ones should is parent name stickers, so that if i a child gets lost/hurt you can find the parent quickly!! Even if they arent that big its easy for a child to get lost inside the tunnels/ball pits and the parent/carer cant usually go in and follow them around.

Have you been to Topsy Turvy World? Brilliant!!!!!!!!

Organic food (for children and adults)
Small people's area that is actually for small people
Games for bigger people
Newspapers for adults
Membership available which saves you a bit of cash iirc

Oh and a decent discount for twins/multiples. Fed up of places like that that say a blanket no! I get the twins shoes at a shop locally that always gives a discount for twins (not Clarks).

Ooh then you could advertise Multiples Day Then you could stock vodka as all the multiple parents swap horror stories. I'd like that!!!

where is TopsyTurvey world please?

i think a discount for anyone with a few children would be good. you could have a family ticket that saved you a bit off the normal price.

I went to one in Australia and it was really good.

It had a art and craft area, a pottery painting area and one area for under 2's and another area for over 2's. They also had a little ride on mini train that went all the way around.

It needs to be clean and with good food, I hate the chips and burgers. Decent food for parents and kids alike, perhaps some nice coffee etc.

Our local one is really expensive, the food is horrible and its dirty, that is why I resent paying for it. I dont mind paying more but I want better facilities.