A Mom Wonders Why Every Children's Indoor Play Place Opens So Damn Late
“By 10 a.m. I've lived three lives because my child likes to wake up at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning.”
If you have an early riser child like I do (5 AM club!), you’re familiar with the frustration surrounding the late opening hours for indoor play spaces. The fact that there are very few places for people with kids to go to hang out in the early mornings is quite a bummer.
By the time most kids’ places open, like 10 or 11 a.m., it’s basically midday. We’ve been up for hours!
One TikTok mom shared this universal frustration and posted her thoughts in a now-viral TikTok.
“My question for these indoor play places dedicated to children and like, the Children's Museum and whatnot, why are we opening at 10 a.m.? Have you guys ever met children before?” Deja Smith asked. “Because by 10 a.m. I've lived three lives because my child likes to wake up at 5, 6 o'clock in the morning. I need y'all to be open bright and early, at least by 7.”
She pleads with these kinds of businesses to open up earlier for the sake of parents who need a way to get out of the house and break up the day that’s not wandering the aisles of Target. She also doesn't get the reasoning behind the 10 or 11 a.m. opening. Kids are ready to eat lunch and nap around that same time!
“Because when you're opening at 10 o'clock, and my child's already been up for like at least four hours, I then have to decide whether or not it's worth it because that's so close to her nap time at that point. Nap time and lunchtime, like hello?” Smith explained.
Smith then called on all moms to unite in the collective fight against 11 a.m. openings and demand earlier opening hours. We need to unite!
“I demand that we all sign a petition that these places need to adjust their hours. We need early morning because this mid-morning stuff is not working for me at all,” Smith concluded.
After getting over 300k views on her video, tons of parents weighed in with their opinions on Smith’s take, with most agreeing that parents need more third places to open when the sun rises.
So much so that Smith’s video changed the mind of one business owner who will not open her indoor playspace an hour earlier. “I’m about a month away from the Grand Opening of my indoor Play Cafe. Initially I had us opening at 9am I am now going to switch to 8am. 🙃,” she wrote.
Another joked, “my kids done killed me by 10am😅”
“So relatable 8 am sharp would be perfect,” another wrote.
The OP replied, “Literal perfection! I can wear my kid out just in time to be home for nap 😂”
Another said, “Omg! I thought I was the only one thinking this 🤭🤭”
“Girl every place around us is like this & It’s so frustrating so we never really go 😭 I’m irritated lol,” Smith responded.
On the other side of the coin, one user defended these later opening times, noting that those people have kids too with stuff to get done in the morning.
“Because we have kids too 😂 it's rough getting him, myself AND the business ready to go 🤣🤣🤣,” they wrote.
Smith replied, “That’s fair enough! But it’s not even just the small local places lol I mean like the big museums and trampoline parks too like it’s just a universal thing”
The irony of all these places being directed for kids and families and yet not one opens up early enough for parents to make the most of a morning before nap time. Until then, I guess we’ll all just be finger-painting with our kids before the sun rises.
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