This is a question I get asked quite often when I tell people that I have a play café. "Is that like a indoor play gym with both slides and rock climbing structures and trampolines?" I guess that is what happens if you introduce a totally new idea to your city.
Indoor playgrounds have been around for a little while, and there are many of them in our town of Burlington and neighbouring cities of Oakville and Hamilton. They're the places you take your children to when they want to burn off their energy if it's too cold outside to visit the park, or www.arcadereview.org whenever you don't want them to tear your house apart. They're the places where your kids can run around through mazes, climb ropes, slide down slides and let out all the mad!
It was really at an indoor park the idea of Chickadee Family Cafe was born within my head. I'd taken my afterward two-and-a-half year old into a popular indoor play space within our hometown Burlington and tried to keep up with him as he raced down slides and throughout mazes. I crouched into miniature corners chasing my little man around and came out utterly exhausted (proceed, insert jokes about how out of shape I am here).
As soon as I arose in the play structures, I looked around me at the other parents. Many were standing around trying to keep a visual in their own kids' whereabouts. Some were calling their kids' names, hoping that they were not stuck in a maze...'cause c'mon, we all know no adult really wants to need to climb all the way up those structures to retrieve a crying child. Mostly, they looked bored and exhausted. Perhaps their kids woke up at 6am too.
Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of laughter and giggles. I had fun with my son, that had been the main aim of visiting the indoor playground, but in a place filled with other moms and dads around my age with kids around my son's age, there was a huge chance for building relationship with my community that I felt was completely overlooked. As a new resident of Burlington I wanted to connect with other parents. But the atmosphere did not actually lend itself to using an actual conversation.
I started to research what was out there to get a few superior mommy -- son time which didn't require me to crawl on my hands and knees and squeeze my butt through a tunnel match for a toddler. I found drama cafes. Play cafes are comparatively new to Canada, but have been around the united kingdom, Australia and the US for several years. A drama café blends the needs of both parents and kids, fueling parents with carbonated drinks while providing ample play space for kids to explore and have fun.
Play cafes take the community-focused way of a café and incorporate a play space for kids. At Chickadee Family Café, we supply that coffee shop atmosphere which you are used to sipping your latte in as well as an enjoyable child-friendly environment full of toys and imaginative based drama actions. Once the play area is closed and the kiddos are in bed, our distance can quickly transform in an evening meeting space for parent workshops, a couples' date night or a meeting location for mompreneurs.
While most indoor playgrounds either do not offer food or serve up fast food options or vending machine snacks, a play café is a full-service café with espresso based drinks along with a hearty menu of healthy snacks and lunch items.
A play café is a bridge between an early years' centre and your local trendy café.
I expect that helped to explain the difference between an indoor park and a play café.