Now that Georgie is walking confidently, and climbing on everything in sight, I can start taking her to our local soft play centre, Jitterbugs Party World. James wanted to come with us for our first visit so he could see what it’s like, and so we decided to head over there this morning before lunch.
It costs £3 for ages 1-3, which I think is very reasonable, and they have a separately enclosed toddler area with small slides, a tunnel, and various other toys, as well as a mini soft play climbing bit for the bigger toddlers.
I was surprised how brave Georgie was about running off to play while James & I sat and watched from the corner. She is normally really shy around other new kids, and tends to stick close the first few times we go somewhere new. It was especially surprising as the main area was really busy so it was quite noisy.
On weekday mornings they do mother & toddler sessions, where your £3 entrance fee also gets you & your toddler drinks and snacks. I’m looking forward to going over one day most weeks to let Georgie run about like a loon as much as she likes, and to do a bit of socialising with other mums & toddlers in the area too.
There were a few negative moments when some kids who were really too big for the toddler area came running in and were not taking care around the small kids. They were clambering around on top of all the play equipment then jumping off without looking to see if there were any toddlers in the way, and they left the gates to the enclosed area wide open. No-one wants toddlers escaping into the main area! I don’t know where most of their parents were, but one of the mums was standing there with her camcorder and obviously found them rampaging through the toddler area completely hilarious – I wasn’t impressed!
Despite those few minutes of irritation, I think I can call our first ever soft play experience a success… we definitely got our £3 worth, Georgie adored it! I’m sure it will be much more peaceful mid week when the older kids are in school, so I definitely look forward to going again with her.
