I took my son to our local soft play place this morning, after spending much of yesterday with him clinging tearfully to my leg, wanting to be picked up then immediately wanting to be put down and then ultimately not wanting either of those options. Once again, he slept terribly, waking at least once an hour and requiring a night-time dose of Ranitidine that he hasn’t needed for months. SO.
So I decided that the soft play place might just have enough distractions in it for both of us. There would be no laundry to sort and no tidying up to be done that might distract me from him; there would be more children to marvel at and other, possibly more interesting toys to play with for my son. Experience has shown that baby groups do wonders for both of our moods and so it seemed the best idea all round…
And it was! He played happily for two hours, practised walking, learned to give me a toy when I said ‘ta’ and even managed a small piece of toast! Hooray! Usually soft play places are quite stressful with the huge amounts of roaring children, parents who are ignoring them and staff who are just plain bored. Usually I am there for a party with my eldest and usually I sit with the other parents and complain about being there again. Usually my son is strapped to his pushchair and is too little to get out and play. But today was different.
Today was a mother and baby session and also free! So, no resentment at paying £5 to get my daughter’s face kicked and legs pushed in all the excitement of ‘having fun’. For a child like my son, all the climbing and throwing of yourself in places like these is perfect! Did I mention it was free?
So, all in all we had a lovely morning. So lovely, in fact, that my son then proceeded to eat some lunch that wasn’t porridge or biscuits! Double hooray!!! In conclusion- soft play places, I love ’em. Today, anyway.
Well I would normally have to say “loathe ’em” and indeed refer to the places as nit-pits. But I think that you have proved the benefits….perhaps I should try going to one when it isnt school holidays or a weekend (usually for a party)!
For me the reality of going to soft play is always much better than I imagine. I dread it and am then amazed how much we both enjoy it. I’ve found some awful ones and some great ones. Ive got no issues with speaking to unsupervised children if their behaviour presents a problem to younger children. Found you via bmb blog hop.