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continuing our tour
of lesser known soft-play centres of West Yorkshire, today found us in Ossett. Getting to Ossett was easy enough – only sticky part of the M1 was the queue lining up to get into M’hell at opening time. (Note to self, no more going to M’hell at weekends until February at the earliest). So that was OK, but then my directions indicated that I was supposed to drive into the centre, which proved a touch impossible – Little Monsters is on a pedestrianised bit of the street. Bit of improvisation later, and we were parked up and walking.
Party was much as these parties are, except that there was a really very good facepainter in residence. So I’ve brought home Spiderman and a special Purple Cat 🙂 And I got to spend a couple of hours talking about home education, flexi schooling and montessori secondary education with two more mothers in very much the same boat I’m in. Unusual experience that, finding other ppl going through the same things. Usually it’s either school or not school – but right now there are several other children in Big’s class who are also flexi-schooled (I don’t think there are any full time in the elementary room) and they are all of an age where we’re wondering what happens next.
So for once it wasn’t too deadly sitting in a corner, right up til the point it came time to go home. Then Small had a full scale meltdown and I ended up having to physically remove him from the premises – always feel like such a failure when it gets to that point. But when you’ve done the reasoning, the explanation and so on, and it still hasn’t worked, so you end up leaving with a child screaming, hitting and kicking you, it’s a whole load of no fun.
Now feeling sorry for myself at home, as it’s the time of the month to celebrate womanhood by aching all over and bursting into tears at the slightest excuse. Joy.
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Comments
9 responses to “continuing our tour”
I’ve certainly been there with a child in full-throttle tantrum. Does leave you feeling horrid. I think soft-play centres are like drugs for children – always seemed to turn mine a bit loopy. I refuse to venture into them any more. I’ve done my time in primary coloured hell.
Good that you have other people around considering a range of educational options. It does tend to polarise into school/home ed, doesn’t it?Glen House takes them up to 15 yo, doesn’t it? Lovely setting too.
Sympathies re: meltdowns & tears, been there too.
Also, yes education is currently too polarised IMO!I bet soft play places see tens of children every week being bodily removed from their premises while having full scale meltdowns :(. Chatting sounds good and I am suffering shoulder to shoulder with you wrt to womans stuff today including tears, aching and in my case full on grumpiness too.
sympathies for hormones and small wailing children. I think I am somewhat unusual in having a child who usually asks to go home before time is up with these things…..
Ah, I’ve moved on from grumpiness and short-temperedness into my more energised and loving time of the month. 😉
Pleased to hear it Marcus!
Wish I had a more energised and loving time of the month…
i think we have also given up play centres. we did go through a period when we were touring toilets, sometimes staying in there for hours. and dig tours diy shops, sometimes for days.
I was talking to a dad there about the whole play centre concept. To some extent I think they replace the going out round the street – we daren’t let our kids play out for fear of traffic, strangers and what other ppl might say about them playing out, so we’ve replaced the neighbourhood playground with the neighbourhood soft play. In some of these you can even get a decent cup of coffee (though I doubt it’s fairtrade) and you can feel good that you are discharging your parental obligations for your offspring to meet up and run around like loons while nattering with your mates in a corner.
Or something.
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