This past weekend we celebrated our sons sixth birthday. My husband and I decided to be adventurous and go for an indoor playground birthday gathering. Suffice to say, It was our first (and definitely last) time. Yes there was so much pressure taken off us – the food prep, the clean-up, the prolonged time hosting etc. However here were my observations and thoughts as to why this is a hard-no and definitely something we are leaving behind in the pandemic:
The indoor playground felt too overstimulating. From the moment I walked in all I could hear was noise ; all I could see were bright flashy lights, neon green and luminous orange color tones, video games that you press that produced more noise etc etc
There is too much structure that takes away from the organic nature of play. The feeling when basically the toys are set up in such a way that you must play with them a certain way. You can only jump up and down a bouncy castle so many times. There are only so many ways you can go up this structure etc. No room for exploration, wonder and curiosity
Parents are relegated to a small room to make small talk as the kids play before the kids are corralled back to have pizza and corralled back to play like sheep in the pasture – see over structured environment above. There is a level of inauthentic play which kids are so good are picking up on from a mile away.
I dunno. This for me is one of those things I am grateful the pandemic shined a light on and has called us outdoors to embrace wild, free organic play. In the meantime I plan to head to the beach for our daughters birthday coming up. Indoor playgrounds – pass.