Tell Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins about your favourite family activities – iPad Mini up for grabs! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins now offer a free soft play session for one child with each purchased pack of promotional Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins. To celebrate this, Bassetts Soft & Chewy want to find out what Mumsnetters' favourite activities are to have fun as a family.

Here's what Bassetts Soft & Chewy have to say, "Mums have told us that they want their kids to be healthy and active so that they can enjoy school. That's why we decided to make mums' lives a little bit easier with free soft play sessions on every promotional pack of Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins offering a free soft play session for one child. With nearly two hundred great soft play centres around the UK taking part in the promotion, children around the country can have fun at their local centre, while mum enjoys a hot cup of coffee. Bassetts Soft & Chewy Vitamins promotional packs can be found in the UK (including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man) in most major retailers."

You can find your nearest participating centre here.

So, what are your favourite family activities? Do you enjoy going to soft play sessions with your children? If so, why? If not, why not? If you have been to one which really stood out as being ace, what made it so good?

Everyone who enters their thoughts to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win an iPad Mini.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

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Just playing together - outdoors would be being on the scooter, practising cartwheels, snacks on a blanket on the grass, indoors would be playing hide and seek, a treasure hunt, a board game - just being together :)

My kids are always asking to go to soft play - they love it! I like it as it keeps them busy for a few hours and they use up a lot of energy but it can be expensive. I never buy food there as it's always rubbish and I'd rather the kids spent their 2 hours running about rather than sitting eating. It would be nice if there was water freely available for the children rather than being forced into buying super-strong squash (or fruit shoots of course!)

We also like going to park or zoo - outdoor stuff is always good. (of course I just asked DS1 what his favourite activity was and he said x-box!)

We like going for days out to local National Trust places, often we don't actually go into the houses but just explore the gardens and grounds as there are so many things to do - bird hides, climbing trees, seeing the flowers and greenhouses, picnics...

I do like softplays too, especially for bad-weather days, as we're lucky and have several nice ones near us - they're clean, with plenty of variety for the kids and nice food and coffees for the adults! Good for letting off steam and getting some exercise when it's not particularly nice outside - I also like them for days when I'm feeling particularly tired or not quite 100%, as the DCs can run around on their own now they're old enough, and let me sit down and rest a bit!

My main pet hate though is the occasional parent/carer that sends their small DCs off on their own and then doesn't watch them, when they are actually not really big enough to get around everywhere safely. A few times I've seen quite tiny children get stuck at bits they couldn't climb back up, or trying to lower themselves down actually quite high bits which they weren't really safe on, while their adults were oblivious nattering somewhere! Otherwise I like our ones though. Sadly none of our local one are on the list!

not very exciting sounding but my favourite thing is walking the dogs through the fields with my son and meeting lovely people and dogs as we go round. love seeing the dogs and boy running about happily, love chatting to happy doggie people and seeing dogs run around and socialise with other dogs and love being out in nature.

also like the way we end up having quite deep chats in an easy going way as we potter and that we end up laughing together a lot.

and it's free which is a bonus.

DS is 1 and we have never been to soft play but I'd be encouraged to take him now as I have seen one local to us had a good mention on this thread!

Our favourite thing to do as a family is probably the local market, DS loves it as there is so much to see, hear and smell. He claps his hands and sings when we walk around and waves at all the stall holders! DP and I can get a nice coffee and a crepe or freshly made waffles for breakfast, and the lovely lady always gives DS a mini croissant which he really enjoys. Afterwards we usually go to feed the ducks and have an ice cream which DS absolutely loves.

The DCs love softplay, so I tolerate taking them occasionally because I am such a lovely, kind mummy. I wouldn't count soft play as a family activity though.

There are a few places we go locally where there is lots of outside space plus a few children's activities. I can sit around with the picnic and the children can knock themselves out. I'm thinking of places like RHS Gardens and Maldon's Promenade Park especially.

We do a lot of outdoor activities with DD bear hunt in the park, adventures on the beach etc

Soft play is our choice for rainy day activities the yellow sub in Liverpool is a favourite

So, what are your favourite family activities? Do you enjoy going to soft play sessions with your children? If so, why? If not, why not? If you have been to one which really stood out as being ace, what made it so good?

Our favourite thing do with the DC would be an outside all day with a picnic type thing. We like going to St Andrews because the beach is amazing, there are historical sites to mooch around and the town is quaint and pretty with an ace ice cream shop.

We've been to many a soft play. I only really go occasionally now if it suits me to meet a friend there on a rainy day perhaps. My children range from 11 to 10 weeks so it just doesn't suit everyone now. Also it's expensive and you can't take a picnic in. I prefer my kids running around in the fresh air to a noisy, smelly, hot centre. The best ones we've been at though have had large play areas with good visibility (so that you can easily spot the DC), a decent café (v important!), none of those annoying toys that you have to put money in and no silly policies of charging you extra if you go over your time by 5 mins because you're putting shoes back on or taking kids to the loo.

Me, Dh and the DD's love getting into our pjs, making a huge bowl of popcorn, getting the fluffy blanket out and watching a DVD together on a Saturday evening

Oops forgot to add about soft play.

We go to head over heels in chorlton too although dd (4) is a bit of a delicate flower and needs a helping hand all the way around , and I'm scared of heights so we don't go as frequently, but with dd2 being alot more robust already at nine months I expect this will change soon

Outside ones really: surfing, body boarding, moor walking, horse riding.

I didn't mind soft play tbh when the kids were younger (they all still like it now). Once they were of an age where I could have a cup of tea and they could just run off it was fine. They'd come back knackered - ideal

Favourite things to do all together as a family is anything out doors. Beach, farm or local outside museum.

Dd2 loves soft play but I only take her if its part of a larger group of friends. If we go alone she refuses to leave and we always end up in a huge stand off. It really spoils the day to have it end on a tantrum.

We also tend to prefer outside activities. A large park, the woods or local beach are all options on a nice day.

If it's been days of rain, soft play is great for the kids but I find it tedious if no other adults come. I tend to go with friends or not at all.

I like them to be clean and spacious. There are some small and cramped soft play that I avoid.

o, what are your favourite family activities?

Favourite family activities are ones that don't cost more than about £50 for a day out, entertain the whole family with a tween boy and a 7 year old girl (not always easy to achieve!) and provide a varied experience which includes some physical exercise!

Do you enjoy going to soft play sessions with your children?

We did when they were younger but not any more. I think we might take our DD more frequently if one didn't have to pay (as an adult) to sit around 'enjoying' oneself and find that even such a simple and local activity can easily cost £15 per child/accompanying adult for an hour or two of play.

If you have been to one which really stood out as being ace, what made it so good?

I can't think of one that stood out as being brilliant but I do remember one we visited up near Newcastle - we visited on a Sunday morning and it seemed to me that every parent there was severely hung-over from a heavy night of partying/drinking - it was truly a hellish experience.....

I agree with Mumsnetters who say that really softplay is a pretty poor and more costly substitute for getting out and about in some fresh air!

I have 5 children aged 8 to 22 and increasingly we do little together as an entire family but they are still keen on a trip to a theme park or occasionally to the beach armed with footballs, cricket etc for those who don't want to sunbathe or paddle.

I am lucky to have 4 soft play centres locally. My favourite 2 are good because although smaller, they are quieter and the children much calmer. An added benefit is that my children can always spot where I am sitting, easily, as the tables are not crammed in!

Favourite family activity - We find national trust days out our great fun for the whole family, we give my youngest daughter a back pack and she becomes 'Dora the explorer' along with a map of where we are visiting, we walk through woods hunting for bugs (and monsters) and then we have a lovely family picnic (with naughty food that we don't normally eat, cake, crisps and fizzy drinks). Both my children enjoy this more than going to theme parks so its a cheap day out that we all enjoy.

We love going to museums and national trust properties. We try to have a family day every other Saturday.

Forgot to add I do not enjoy going to soft play but my children do so we go and they have a great time.

Love soft play in the bitter winter when it is freezing cold and too bitter to be outside for long. It gets us all active and warmed up!

So, what are your favourite family activities?
We like swimming, cinema and playing in the park.
Do you enjoy going to soft play sessions with your children? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes. good ones cater fir every age ( I have big age gap), decent cafe and free wifi.

We love taking our 1 year old out on our boat. He adore it and loves picnics on it and tottering around and helping with the fenders and the lines. It is also the only place he will sleep on me so lovely for a cuddle. However when it is cold we adore soft play as a great way of burning off some energy!

We try to mix it up some as children love a little of everything
try to be outside when ever possible
The park, beach swimming
The swimming one is great as we all do it and the park ..we often take kites with us
Or just baking and reading a book together
For me sometimes the snuggled on a sofa reading a book together is the most precious as they wont alow me to do it much longer

We like going to the local forestry comission forest. It has miles and miles of cycle tracks - the kids and DH cycle, I run. Swimming is a favourite too, although I hate it because of the getting changed at either side, what a rigmarole! We also enjoy going out to cafes with soft play areas, I can relax over a coffee while the kids run round like loons.