Soft play can be stressful at the best of times. When you add in the fact that it’s raining and you have arranged to meet 6 other moms (with a total of 22 children between you) it gets a little more challenging.
Soft Play Venue:
Today we knew it was going to be wet so we all planned a lovely meet up at one of our local Wacky Warehouse soft plays. They offer summer holiday passes that only cost £20 for 4 children. This gives you unlimited plays for the 6 weeks and 10% off food so it’s a real bargain. Any other soft play can cost me £20 just for the entry for one time as we have the four little ones so if we went more than once it gets really pricey.
We knew it was going to be busy so we arranged to go for opening to secure some seats and tables so we were all able to sit together. One slight problem, we got there and it’s closed for maintenance. Queue screaming children as we’re trying to get them back in the car. Trying to explain to a 2 and 3-year-old that we are going to another one when they’re screaming is not the easiest thing I have done in my life.
We also had to try to get in touch with the others that we were meeting to inform them that we were going to a different venue.
We ended up in another Wacky Warehouse where we could still get the passes. This one was open and as we were still early, we all got a seat – yay. Well, all the adults did. There was no where for the kids to sit but they were playing so that didn’t matter…yet.
Hot drinks all round and we are all sat chilling and having a good natter (this is my favourite part ?).
Stress 1 (Little Children):
Stress number one for me is that Seth is still really little and I don’t like him going off on his own to much. The Wacky Warehouse’s are great as they are not that big, so I can pretty much catch a glance at him every couple of minutes. The older two are really good at keeping an eye on him and involving him in their games. Today however the older ones had all their friends there and they were off and didn’t look back. It’s not their job to look after him, but I came for hot chocolate and a natter not to play ?.
Thankfully, lots of the other children we was with played with him and Grace and Reuben did check in on him and Elijah as well.
The Wacky Warehouse is also fab in the fact that the ones by us don’t have an issue with you taking in some food (like little snacks of biscuits / crisps etc.). If money is tight, taking juice and snacks from home can really help.
Today, most of us ordered food. Excellent, no cooking for me and kids can have a nice hot lunch here and I don’t need to worry about feeding them until later.
Stress 2 (Seating):
Stress number two is that the kids had no where to sit. They had let so many people in today that I’m sure they were over capacity. It was so busy, they even had people sitting in the party area. Not all of us ordered food, but we still had 13 children that we needed some where for them to sit and eat. Well picnic style it was. We made a little gap between the tables and sat most of them on the floor. Some of the moms stood up, the kids shared their chairs and I had one on my lap whilst trying to eat my amazing grilled halloumi sub (this was superb value for money). It wasn’t ideal but it worked and they all had full bellies ready to go back and play.
Stress 3 (Games Machines):
Stress number three is the stupid machines with toys in. I really hate these things as it’s just tat and if one kid gets one then they all want one. I had the choice whether to be that mom that made her children go without or not, but they caught me in a good mood so I let them get one. Reuben got a really cool torch with a super hero on it which is exactly what Elijah wanted. It’s a pot luck machine that just kept giving out balls so three balls later and swearing this was the last pound I was putting in we got him his torch – yay.
Stress 4 (Departure):
Stress number four is leaving. They are all tired and sweating but none of them want to go home. It’s standard for every child I’m sure, and I think every family must have at least one time when they have a screaming child as they leave soft play?
All in all it was a lovely day with good company, happy children and good food.
It can’t of been that bad as we have all planned another one on Monday lol.