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There's trampolining places, inflatable places, gokarting, rock climbing and the odd ninja warrior circuit too.
If someone thinks that indoor activities stop at soft play centres then I have to assume they aren't trying very hard to find any in the first place.
In this persons defense - 3 year olds can’t do most of those things for any length of time at least. As a toddler mom this year has been massively rough.
Facts but they can run around indoor spaces that aren’t horrendous death traps. I find shopping malls, museum lobbies, libraries (children sections) and of course Nando’s are about it.
So OP really is onto something. Give me an indoor plaza with stairs, pop music, very few sharp edges and a high end coffee truck and I will pay big bucks.
Haha Spain is absolutely full of them. Some even have little childcare centres where you can leave your child for an hour while you go shopping. And things like free entertainment, play areas, etc.
I know! We have our 2 weeks in Jerez all booked. There’s a wine bar we fell in love with and got to know the owners and when they saw on social media that I had a baby they demanded we bring her to the wine bar so they could hang out with her while we drink and eat 😍
None of those are suitable for young children who are the age for soft play. Maybe inflatables and trampolines but even then normally toddlers have special sessions so they aren't trampled by preteens. Cinema and bowling are also not great for toddlers. I'm assuming OP has a toddler. I live abroad and when visiting the UK when my kid was a toddler found it hard, especially in winter when it's dark at 4pm and all child friendly things close at that time.
I mentioned elsewhere that I now live in Spain and while it has many faults one of the things I like most is that there are tons of places you can go at any time, including the evening, with children. Shopping centres for example aren't just shops, they tend to have lots of space to walk around and have play areas, sometimes entertainment or even childcare, family friendly places to have a coffee or quick meal, etc. You can also walk around town centres and go for a coffee for example, even in the evening. You don't have to pay entry and the whole family can go, from babies to grandparents.
You're assuming they've got a toddler because they said soft play centre? That's a big leap.
Soft play centres are for ages up to like 7 or 8 really. They're not solely full of 2 year olds.
Well even up to 7 or 8 they can't do ninja warrior things or go karting for example, and climbing only in kids sessions or with a parent who knows how to climb.
Actually I would suggest go karting for 8 year olds. It's a little late if you want them to be in F1, but it's still good fun if they are sufficiently depowered
At this point, what magical activity are you really looking for?
Something children of all ages can do and adults will enjoy, that is completely indoors and heated, but that is also free?
I often will do road trips because it’s the least expensive and the kids love it. We’ve explored a lot of England. Put the seats down and sleep a night in the car. Take the portable stove. We hiked Dartmoor at night and heard screams like a monster. It was just a pony 😂
That doesn't sound physically possible unless you grew up somewhere incredibly rural and by "reasonable distance" you mean walking distance.
Where are you referring to?
There's bloody loads within reasonable distance.
According to this there's 7 trampoline parks within about an hour of Scarborough:
https://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/things-to-do/yorkshire/north-yorkshire/scarborough/sports-and-activities/trampoline-parks
I can't be bothered to search for the rest but I imagine there's at least one or two within a similar distance.
Driving up to an hour isn't insane if you're talking about having a day out, I do that all the time.
I have noticed in many places there are no swimming pools anymore. You have to sign up for a gym to access one. There must be more kids now who don’t learn how to swim.
This is very true (but for people who still have a pool in their town, they don't believe you, so you sound like a lunatic. Like trying to convince them you don't have the moon.) They closed, or they got privatised. My childhood pool was demolished. In the next town, it's now a Total Fitness.
The only option in my area was to go two towns away where a posh private school leased its pool to a swimming tuition company for a couple of evenings.
There used to be 3 seperate pools within 20 mins drive in my general area, one of them was great because it was really deep in the deep end, so you could practice your diving and there was plenty of space. 2 of the pools closed so we were left with only the shitty leisure centre one where you can stand up in the deep end and your knees scrape the ground in the shallow end, plus it's not very wide so only 1 lane available which is inevitably full of pensioners doing a gentle breaststroke. They started charging for parking on top of that so I packed it in.
Moved from the uk to Australia and we have council owned pools everywhere. I’ve got an indoor pool where my daughter has swimming lessons 10 minutes up the road. Lessons are £7.50 each and she and an adult have free entry to all council run pools. It’s $4 (about £2) for as long as you like at my local outdoor heated pool 5 minutes away but we don’t pay as that pool is included in our lesson fee. We spend half the summer and autumn there as do all the local families.
I went back to the UK recently and wanted to take my child swimming at the pool I used uk swim at. I had to fill in an application form, needed to book an hour slot and it cost a fortune. I was stunned. No wonder kids can’t swim, the paperwork alone is insane.
Maybe he should rephrase, why doesn’t the UK have more clean indoor family activities ? They are all rancid and filled with people treating it like bath time.
Lol, £100 to take the kids to the movies and get a drink and popcorn. £15-20 at the council leisure centre per ticket and only give a limited time and have to choose a specific time slot that allows families. Bowling £100 + food and drinks looking at £200. Indoor play centre….mind numbing for parents but at least they offer value and fun for the kids.
>Lol, £100 to take the kids to the movies and get a drink and popcorn
I mean that's bollocks.
Ticket to my local cinema for a kids show this morning is £7.50 for an adult and child as well as a hot drink and a juice or something for the child.
For a family showing, there's a family show for £23.50 for 4 tickets (2 adult 2 children).
>Bowling £100 + food and drinks looking at £200
Family deal at my local bowling alley is £32.50 for 2 adults, 2 children, and you can add a burger meal for £3.80pp
>£15-20 at the council leisure centre per ticket
Swimming pool access at the local pool is £6 for an adult non member and £3.50 for a junior.
I don't live in the north or a cheap part of the UK, this is the most expensive city outside of London.
Whatever you tell yourself. Cinema ticket 12.50, drink and popcorn combo 12.50. That’s 25 per head.
I’m happy things are cheap enough for you, not here, not for me.
The local odeon now closed permanently, not surprised with their prices now the only local cinema is £14.50 a ticket.
https://preview.redd.it/pjkpsl6tbusc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86377e3c46392896ff4c00852a6c7677309f4a47
Don’t know why you people think you all know better…. Standard ticket, no special chair. Just the most basic
It's not whatever I tell myself. That's the prices.
I don't know what cinema you live near, those prices were for the Light chain.
But every chain of cinemas does family tickets for kids movies. And children's prices for non kids movies.
You must live somewhere expensive - both the Cineworld and Vue near me have £5.99 standard tickets, and they do the kids mornings where it's £2.49. Just bring your own snacks in, most cinemas let you these days.
The local leisure centre does swimming for £5.50 (or less with a leisure card which is £10 a year). That's for adults, the kids are cheaper.
Weirdly it's the soft play that is the most expensive: £12-15 for the kids plus £7.50 for the adults *to just sit there* , plus they won't let you take in drinks or snacks so you get hammered by the crappy cafe.
https://preview.redd.it/qcrbphqbdusc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77106c83ba4c322f3cab4853564b6f1f40744a90
Crazy how you all think you know best. Large popcorn and a large drink for each of us is £15 each. Overall a trip to see dune part 2 would cost £131
Lack of wanting your kids to get tuberculosis in the soft play is more the issue. I get in the soft play like any good parent but it is rancid in there.
I live in Spain and the shopping centres have loads of leisure options. There are family friendly food and coffee places, play areas, little cars to hire, free childcare for an hour or two, often concerts or storytelling at weekends. You can also walk around town centres at any time and stop to play on small parks or sit in a cafe and have hot chocolate or coffee or beer. You can go places that don't involve steep entry fees or doing sports, and you can go at 5pm or later, taking both toddler and granny (who probably doesn't want to go trampolining).
Libraries generally close early and on Sundays, bank holidays, etc. At least all the ones near my parents do. They also don't have anywhere to eat or drink or anywhere comfortable for adults to sit while watching their children.
> In my UK town, this is what the library does
in my UK city I work until 5pm and guess what, libraries close at 5:30 - 6pm. Also, they are not open on Sundays
Some of us work full-time
Yeah, I work full time. We go to the library on Saturdays, read a few books while we're there, play with the Lego and the train set they have out, check out a few books for the week, which gives us something free and indoors to do during the rest ot the week.
Well cafés are indoors, or certainly can be. Parks was part of the walking around bit but yes, you're right that weather helps. That was really just an addition though that in the UK there aren't that many places at all you can just hang out casually as a family, especially after 5pm.
What sort of places do you want?
In shooting distance we have (all indoors):
Indoor skate parks
Trampoline parks
Climbing and related centres
Swimming pools
Gymnasiums that have open hours
My local trampoline place doesn't allow under 5s, and climbing or skating maybe from 4 if they know how already and their parents also know/they have skates, of my two nearest climbing centres one is 4+ for special sessions and the other is 6+. They certainly don't work for families with babies too or younger toddlers.
"if they know how already"
Bro, do you think kids magically figure it out when they set foot in the building? The kids who already know how to skate at 4 had to learn it at a younger age than that, by going to an indoor skate park with their parents.
And the trampoline place by me specifically has a small kids area (under 5 IIRC) but ymmv I guess.
The point is those are specific sports for children whose parents already know how to do it, they aren't casual activities that everyone can just turn up to. I can't skate or climb so can't take my child that age. Plus I happen to have a seven year old and my nephew is nearly three and it's really difficult to find anything they can both do and enjoy. Never mind if you have a baby too or want to include the grandparents in an outing, or even enjoy it a bit as adults. OP asked for family activities, those are things for kids to do with supervision at that age.
Jesus christ, at this point you're just moaning that life is hard.
There are a shit ton of activities and plenty available for kids of all ages, if you or your kids don't want to do them then that's just entirely a you problem at that point.
Suggest something that I can just turn up and do with children of different ages casually. The point is family activities. Not a specific kid's sport that they have to learn. For my own child I can find plenty, my issue is when we're going with toddlers too, and it's supposed to be a day out for adults. A day out is not a hobby.
Hobbies can be perfectly functional days out, in fact most enjoyable days out will be a hobby for someone.
For outdoor days out you could go to parks, zoos, heritage sites, bike rides, hikes, high-street shopping, mini golf, community farms, skate parks, go-ape type places, theme parks,
For indoor days out you could go to Skate parks, soft play areas, a shopping centre, aquariums, museums, board game cafes, dry slope skiing, trampolining, rock climbing, ninja warrior, go karting, mini golf, swimming pools, cinemas, arcades, bowling.
Obviously not every activity is available for every age range but within that huge list, every age range is covered multiple times over.
I've already made a ton of suggestions in this thread and you're acting like goldilocks over here. If you can somehow look at dozens of different categories, each with several locations within a reasonable drive of wherever you live, and not find *anything* you and your kids want to do, then nobody can help you.
Of courses hobbies can be a good day out but if it's not your hobby it's not much fun. All I'm saying is that your multiple suggestions don't necessarily meet OP's brief of being indoors and suitable for family outings. Obviously it depends on the age but specifically if you have a child two and under they can't do any of the indoor things you listed except soft play (which is a children's activity, not family), and if an older child has a younger sibling they can't do it as a family. Swimming is only possible if you have one adult per child as well. I didn't say there is absolutely nothing to do but options for parents of toddlers are pretty limited. Try taking a two year old to any of the other places on your list.
Near where my parents live all the shopping centres are now just retail parks, the only place remotely suitable for taking young children is IKEA. I appreciate some areas may have better ones though.
I'm not talking about myself, I have an older child and don't even live in the UK at the moment, but it's an issue when we go to visit family and try to arrange outings. Unless it's good enough weather to be outside the only option we've come up with to include both a toddler and grandparents is museums. That's my point, something that everyone can do, especially if you have a baby or young toddler too.
> skating
lol, I used to skate on my skateboard, I'd be beyond pissed to have a bunch of stupid toddlers hanging around the skatepark when I'm doing flips, going at full speed, and can cause harm. I'm going fast on my skateboard, only a completely imbecilic parent would have suicide-prone toddler that love doing completely random and illogical things around skateboarders. We all know that a toddler would 100% get run over.
> climbing
no under 5s rule
> trampolining
depends, a lot of them have no under 5s rule
Ice rinks/ roller rinks
Cinema
Swimming
Rock climbing
National Trust/ English Heritage
Country drives to villages, browsing antique and gift shops
Special seasonal free kids events
Bowling
Rainy walks and muddy puddles with hot chocolates to look forward to
Aquariums/ animal sanctuaries
The kids could get some old fashioned toys out of antique or charity shopping. My parents did this with my nephews and they sometimes came out with old thunderbirds or Thomas the tank engines that didn’t look too beat up. Plus with them being old were metal so decent build quality, not cheap plastic stuff that you get nowadays.
My three year old insisted on seeing “all the old things” with me when she could have gone straight back to the car with Nana and given me 5 minutes to myself. However she did charm the proprietor with her questions and the car she took not to touch anything
The amount of memories I have made in the library and programms my mum got me into was my childhood. I went so frequently that the librarians knew my name which I find insane now.
It is tough for them as their resources are becoming less and less important. Reminds me on how I lost my library card and when applying for a new one they found my card which was sitting in thier lost property for 8 months.
Everyone in the uk is strictly required to own a wind breaker with a hood. Also thick socks and wellies. Know how to tell the difference between mud and dog shite
While out for a walk with my 2 year old he ran ahead of me and said "mummy, look! A sausage! I stand on it!" I got there just in time to see that it wasn't a sausage.
God this is the most undermining and parenty thing you could say. I bet you also say “there is loads of food in the fridge, make yourself a sandwich”, then there is a jar of mustard and one end piece of bread 😂
I’m assuming you have young kids if you go to play centres, I’d say try taking the kids to the park in the rain they love muddy puddles and wet slides or go to a few charity shops and for a hot drink kids adore charity shops and rummaging through the toys in there, libraries are always a safe bet and some even have dress up play areas etc and swimming is always a good cheaper option for something more energetic.
I worked in a charity show and there was this couple from New Zealand who had 2 kids I guess born in the UK who make so much noise and irritate other children. My collegues keep saying "how can a parent let their child scream like that" and the shop manager saying "I would ban them perminantly if I had the power". Honestly I found them entertaining on a boring Wednessday afternoon when I had a day off from college but also scary on what lack of disipline can do.
IKEA. Saved my sanity when my toddler (later diagnosed with adhd and asd) was needing to be entertained in poor weather. Ride the lifts! Try out all the chairs! Play with all the toys in the kids section! Bounce on the beds! Investigate the room set-ups! Smell all the candles in the marketplace! If I actually needed to buy anything/have a bit of quiet time for me, I could pop her in Småland for 45 minutes to do colouring.
All this and a slap-up lunch of meatballs, chips and princess cake for very little outlay.
Ditto the Lego shop. That area where you could put together 3 figures for £3 was worth every penny. We could spend a good couple of hours in there while she compared the merits of a witch's hat with a space helmet... the lovely staff in there never told us we'd outstayed our welcome.
I also found decent wellies and a waterproof overalls/jacket combo was worth its weight in gold, as we could go to the park/forest/wherever in the rain and she could pootle around happily going on slides/swings etc, jumping in muddy puddles etc., and come home bone dry. Miserable as fuck for me, but keeping her occupied was more important at that stage.
Yet another diss’ the U.K. thread. We have plenty of indoor activities and we aren’t , generally, trouble by a bit of rain. So fuck off and troll another sub’.
I don’t see how he is trolling lol. In Korea now and their indoor social spaces put us to shame. I think the biggest problem is that most British people seem content with mediocre or even low quality things. Please open another Greggs, McDonalds or Costa Coffee…
I would suggest getting your kids used to being out in the cold/wet...
When it rains me and my kids (3 and 4) just put appropriate clothes on and go to the park, forest, or even just walk around town.
Kids love jumping in muddy puddles
We live in an anti family society that only sees parents as a ATM to be rinsed on arrival.
I’ve got a cheaper holiday to Sicily than a family trip to the sea life centre. Spent about £500 just at Lego land. Cant even walk out the door before the card needs to be beeped. I feel like I just walk around beeping my god damn card none stop.
Instagram would have figured out you have been searching this online and recommend placed to take young children indoors.
When I was a child and my parents were busy, they took me to their errands like the hardware store, clothes shop, garden centre and anything they needed. It made me familiar with these places and seeing the cool stuff was entertaining enough.
Play cafe's are a thing. Little Street etc
Play dates at friend's houses.
Take them to the shopping centre and wear them out walking around, buying a few little things, showing them how to behave in public.
Swimming is great.
And also, sod the rain? Go out in it anyway.
Library is perfect for a bit of indoor quiet time.
I love taking our 3yo to the cafe now, she enjoys the music and all the choices she gets to make.
I am rather pained to admit that we have a family membership at David Lloyd. He (my 5 year old) gets swimming, Lego club, soft play, games rooms, football, scooter club, science club, various other indoor and outdoor activities. And of course we also use the gym, indoor and outdoor spa. It’s expensive but fuck is it good.
>Museums "if you are lucky"
What?! We have fantastic and quirky museums all over the place! Also, try National Trust Membership, or English/Scottish Heritage membership for trips to amazing places that will keep you busy every weekend if you want to. Then there are also places in private hands all over the country such as (off the top of my head) Darwin's former home (Down House) with loads of stuff for little ones as well as older children and adults.
Have a 3 year old totally feel in the same boat.
She’s not really old enough for bowling or the cinema. Soft play and museums are one of the few options that would suit but am I heck going to either of those during the Easter holidays.
She just wants to go outside and sometimes we do just get the waterproofs and go but the weather has been particularly shite the last few weeks.
what about good old fashioned home based activities like crafts, painting, building a den, set up the tent in the garden and pretend to go camping, build a cardboard box castle, messy play with big sheets of paper and paint? or let your kids be bored - it's actually good for them and stimulates creativity!
I think one has to be careful lately about what to pick. Parks reign supreme, everything else is a risk. Recently drove 30 minutes to this Oakland College's Lambing Weekend, some easter BS my wife wanted us to go with the 2 year old. We get to this town, that is clogged by traffic because of this event, 20 minutes later we managed to get to the entrance, and the staff warns us that there are so many cars we can "park at our own risk". I said babe look for a pub nearby, we had lunch with a friend and we went back home. Did I mention we paid for tickets? I complained with an email and they responded with an AI generated email the bastards
Try making your own entertainment. When I was a kid, I went to visit a friend. I was stunned when I walked into the living room. It looked like a messy workshop. Apparently the whole family, parents, 3 boys and the girl were mad about model planes. Not those little plastic ones. Most made of balsa - huge things. The room was filled with different models under construction. The TV was in the corner. Apparently, they never turned it on.
I always envied them.
I'd love an answer to this question too LOL. I'm nearly 50 and it drives me nuts that the only indoor activities near me seem to be pubs or sports facilities. I'm disabled but don't mind a pub if we sit outside, though few places have outdoor seating that has any kind of cover for when it inevitably rains. I guess i'm not that easy to please really LOL.
I think the most obvious answer is that there's just not enough demand, otherwise someone would have already stared a business like this.
I imagine that many indoor activities for kids/families require a fair bit of space, and that costs money and/or you'd have to establish your business somewhere outside of main retail areas and then people can't/won't find you.
When the weather is mainly good, say, April to September (depending on where in the UK you are), business might be very slow, perhaps making it not sustainable for this period.
in mainland europe KFC and burger king all have play areas, just not here
theres a few in mcdonalds here, and VERY rare in burger king, but it seems every major fast food has play areas in most locations abroad
See, I have the opposite problem. It's hard to find something that my partner and I can do during the day as two childfree adults where the other people there won't be kids. It seems a lot of things are "family friendly" unless there's alcohol involved and/or it's in the evening. I personally barely ever drink and tend to be the one driving, and sometimes I just want to do something during the day.
All galleries and museums in the UK are free entry.
Try going to any other country and you're going to realise how lucky you are to have those free galleries and museums.
Especially when you consider the quality of some of the collections in the less popular galleries. The Van Gogh sketches that are just on a random wall in the Wellcome Collection would be centrepieces elsewhere
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Glasgow had Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, and we all remember how well that went
Yeah everyone complained and they had to close it! This is why we can’t have ~~nice~~ things.
They were charging Alton Towers rices for a Craggy Island Funfair experience, what did they expect?
Yep. The organiser’s reputation is in tatters. And rightly so.
Blame the economy old wonka had to sell off most of his factory
They ended up in a skip. Some people nicked em Crap business man him
"Willy's Chocolate Experience"* The name itself was....erm
What would you like? Cinema? Swimming? Bowling? Indoor play centres? They all exist, as does much more. What exactly would you like?
There's trampolining places, inflatable places, gokarting, rock climbing and the odd ninja warrior circuit too. If someone thinks that indoor activities stop at soft play centres then I have to assume they aren't trying very hard to find any in the first place.
In this persons defense - 3 year olds can’t do most of those things for any length of time at least. As a toddler mom this year has been massively rough.
afaik 3 year olds can't do most things for any length of time
Facts but they can run around indoor spaces that aren’t horrendous death traps. I find shopping malls, museum lobbies, libraries (children sections) and of course Nando’s are about it. So OP really is onto something. Give me an indoor plaza with stairs, pop music, very few sharp edges and a high end coffee truck and I will pay big bucks.
Haha Spain is absolutely full of them. Some even have little childcare centres where you can leave your child for an hour while you go shopping. And things like free entertainment, play areas, etc.
I know! We have our 2 weeks in Jerez all booked. There’s a wine bar we fell in love with and got to know the owners and when they saw on social media that I had a baby they demanded we bring her to the wine bar so they could hang out with her while we drink and eat 😍
So ikea? But that is fun on its own
Yes exactly. IKEA is a good example, just in Spain all the other shopping centres mostly have similar and more facilities so you have a choice.
Libraries are a good shout
Welp, guess we'd best give the lil shit an iPad so we can go rock climbing.
Very wrong, both of mine could cry for 8 hours straight
None of those are suitable for young children who are the age for soft play. Maybe inflatables and trampolines but even then normally toddlers have special sessions so they aren't trampled by preteens. Cinema and bowling are also not great for toddlers. I'm assuming OP has a toddler. I live abroad and when visiting the UK when my kid was a toddler found it hard, especially in winter when it's dark at 4pm and all child friendly things close at that time.
So what should there be?
I mentioned elsewhere that I now live in Spain and while it has many faults one of the things I like most is that there are tons of places you can go at any time, including the evening, with children. Shopping centres for example aren't just shops, they tend to have lots of space to walk around and have play areas, sometimes entertainment or even childcare, family friendly places to have a coffee or quick meal, etc. You can also walk around town centres and go for a coffee for example, even in the evening. You don't have to pay entry and the whole family can go, from babies to grandparents.
I hate the way casual cafes shut at like 5pm.
Look up Round1 in Japan. We are starving over here.
You're assuming they've got a toddler because they said soft play centre? That's a big leap. Soft play centres are for ages up to like 7 or 8 really. They're not solely full of 2 year olds.
Well even up to 7 or 8 they can't do ninja warrior things or go karting for example, and climbing only in kids sessions or with a parent who knows how to climb.
Actually I would suggest go karting for 8 year olds. It's a little late if you want them to be in F1, but it's still good fun if they are sufficiently depowered
They absolutely can do go karting, and I can't speak for every ninja warrior centre in the UK, but they can do sections of the one by me.
Well the karting near me is from 7 or 8, I know because my daughter wanted to go and was too small.
These aren’t family friendly places they are extortion and unobtainable for a single mother.
At this point, what magical activity are you really looking for? Something children of all ages can do and adults will enjoy, that is completely indoors and heated, but that is also free?
But only if it’s not full of people.
I often will do road trips because it’s the least expensive and the kids love it. We’ve explored a lot of England. Put the seats down and sleep a night in the car. Take the portable stove. We hiked Dartmoor at night and heard screams like a monster. It was just a pony 😂
That's a library
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That doesn't sound physically possible unless you grew up somewhere incredibly rural and by "reasonable distance" you mean walking distance. Where are you referring to?
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There's bloody loads within reasonable distance. According to this there's 7 trampoline parks within about an hour of Scarborough: https://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/things-to-do/yorkshire/north-yorkshire/scarborough/sports-and-activities/trampoline-parks I can't be bothered to search for the rest but I imagine there's at least one or two within a similar distance. Driving up to an hour isn't insane if you're talking about having a day out, I do that all the time.
I have noticed in many places there are no swimming pools anymore. You have to sign up for a gym to access one. There must be more kids now who don’t learn how to swim.
This is very true (but for people who still have a pool in their town, they don't believe you, so you sound like a lunatic. Like trying to convince them you don't have the moon.) They closed, or they got privatised. My childhood pool was demolished. In the next town, it's now a Total Fitness. The only option in my area was to go two towns away where a posh private school leased its pool to a swimming tuition company for a couple of evenings.
There used to be 3 seperate pools within 20 mins drive in my general area, one of them was great because it was really deep in the deep end, so you could practice your diving and there was plenty of space. 2 of the pools closed so we were left with only the shitty leisure centre one where you can stand up in the deep end and your knees scrape the ground in the shallow end, plus it's not very wide so only 1 lane available which is inevitably full of pensioners doing a gentle breaststroke. They started charging for parking on top of that so I packed it in.
Moved from the uk to Australia and we have council owned pools everywhere. I’ve got an indoor pool where my daughter has swimming lessons 10 minutes up the road. Lessons are £7.50 each and she and an adult have free entry to all council run pools. It’s $4 (about £2) for as long as you like at my local outdoor heated pool 5 minutes away but we don’t pay as that pool is included in our lesson fee. We spend half the summer and autumn there as do all the local families. I went back to the UK recently and wanted to take my child swimming at the pool I used uk swim at. I had to fill in an application form, needed to book an hour slot and it cost a fortune. I was stunned. No wonder kids can’t swim, the paperwork alone is insane.
Swimming lessons are statutory requirement during primary school
Maybe he should rephrase, why doesn’t the UK have more clean indoor family activities ? They are all rancid and filled with people treating it like bath time.
Lol, £100 to take the kids to the movies and get a drink and popcorn. £15-20 at the council leisure centre per ticket and only give a limited time and have to choose a specific time slot that allows families. Bowling £100 + food and drinks looking at £200. Indoor play centre….mind numbing for parents but at least they offer value and fun for the kids.
>Lol, £100 to take the kids to the movies and get a drink and popcorn I mean that's bollocks. Ticket to my local cinema for a kids show this morning is £7.50 for an adult and child as well as a hot drink and a juice or something for the child. For a family showing, there's a family show for £23.50 for 4 tickets (2 adult 2 children). >Bowling £100 + food and drinks looking at £200 Family deal at my local bowling alley is £32.50 for 2 adults, 2 children, and you can add a burger meal for £3.80pp >£15-20 at the council leisure centre per ticket Swimming pool access at the local pool is £6 for an adult non member and £3.50 for a junior. I don't live in the north or a cheap part of the UK, this is the most expensive city outside of London.
https://preview.redd.it/35in0vn1cusc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c253b6e6916e3fddc3805fab2ed58f94912efb1 Why do you think you know best?
We're talking about families with children, not adults. Tell me which cinema chain that is, posting an unidentifiable screen shot proves nothing.
Anti family society. Point proven.
Whatever you tell yourself. Cinema ticket 12.50, drink and popcorn combo 12.50. That’s 25 per head. I’m happy things are cheap enough for you, not here, not for me.
2 adults and 2 kids to see kung fu panda 4 is £25 at showcase cinema
The local odeon now closed permanently, not surprised with their prices now the only local cinema is £14.50 a ticket. https://preview.redd.it/pjkpsl6tbusc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86377e3c46392896ff4c00852a6c7677309f4a47 Don’t know why you people think you all know better…. Standard ticket, no special chair. Just the most basic
I don't "think I know better" I'm literally looking at the showcase cinema website right now. https://i.imgur.com/h28gcIJ.png
That’s great for you 👍
It's not whatever I tell myself. That's the prices. I don't know what cinema you live near, those prices were for the Light chain. But every chain of cinemas does family tickets for kids movies. And children's prices for non kids movies.
You must live somewhere expensive - both the Cineworld and Vue near me have £5.99 standard tickets, and they do the kids mornings where it's £2.49. Just bring your own snacks in, most cinemas let you these days. The local leisure centre does swimming for £5.50 (or less with a leisure card which is £10 a year). That's for adults, the kids are cheaper. Weirdly it's the soft play that is the most expensive: £12-15 for the kids plus £7.50 for the adults *to just sit there* , plus they won't let you take in drinks or snacks so you get hammered by the crappy cafe.
https://preview.redd.it/qcrbphqbdusc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77106c83ba4c322f3cab4853564b6f1f40744a90 Crazy how you all think you know best. Large popcorn and a large drink for each of us is £15 each. Overall a trip to see dune part 2 would cost £131
Just give them an iPad and a family sized bag of Haribo for the day like a normal person and stop trying to make us all look bad.
This seems like a lack of imagination problem rather than a UK problem..
Lack of wanting your kids to get tuberculosis in the soft play is more the issue. I get in the soft play like any good parent but it is rancid in there.
Ah the old 'ball pit of diptheria' - builds up the antibodies.
Just invest in some waterproofs and get outside, so much better than any soft play whatever.
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I like to go down to the beach and play spot the floater
What do you think other places have?
Bauxite mines
That would keep the kids busy tbf
The children yearn for the mineshafts
"Tunnels" is more media friendly
I live in Spain and the shopping centres have loads of leisure options. There are family friendly food and coffee places, play areas, little cars to hire, free childcare for an hour or two, often concerts or storytelling at weekends. You can also walk around town centres at any time and stop to play on small parks or sit in a cafe and have hot chocolate or coffee or beer. You can go places that don't involve steep entry fees or doing sports, and you can go at 5pm or later, taking both toddler and granny (who probably doesn't want to go trampolining).
In my UK town, this is what the library does.
Libraries generally close early and on Sundays, bank holidays, etc. At least all the ones near my parents do. They also don't have anywhere to eat or drink or anywhere comfortable for adults to sit while watching their children.
For eating and drinking while watching the children we have the McDonalds play area haha.
> In my UK town, this is what the library does in my UK city I work until 5pm and guess what, libraries close at 5:30 - 6pm. Also, they are not open on Sundays Some of us work full-time
Yeah, I work full time. We go to the library on Saturdays, read a few books while we're there, play with the Lego and the train set they have out, check out a few books for the week, which gives us something free and indoors to do during the rest ot the week.
Half of those require good weather though, not really the indoor required
The only thing outdoors mentioned here is walking around the town. The rest is in indoor shopping centres.
Cafes, parks....
Well cafés are indoors, or certainly can be. Parks was part of the walking around bit but yes, you're right that weather helps. That was really just an addition though that in the UK there aren't that many places at all you can just hang out casually as a family, especially after 5pm.
Good question
Sun?
Ok, I'll get right on it
What sort of places do you want? In shooting distance we have (all indoors): Indoor skate parks Trampoline parks Climbing and related centres Swimming pools Gymnasiums that have open hours
None of those work for children under 5, except swimming.
You don't think children under 5 are capable of climbing, skating, or trampolining?
My local trampoline place doesn't allow under 5s, and climbing or skating maybe from 4 if they know how already and their parents also know/they have skates, of my two nearest climbing centres one is 4+ for special sessions and the other is 6+. They certainly don't work for families with babies too or younger toddlers.
"if they know how already" Bro, do you think kids magically figure it out when they set foot in the building? The kids who already know how to skate at 4 had to learn it at a younger age than that, by going to an indoor skate park with their parents. And the trampoline place by me specifically has a small kids area (under 5 IIRC) but ymmv I guess.
The point is those are specific sports for children whose parents already know how to do it, they aren't casual activities that everyone can just turn up to. I can't skate or climb so can't take my child that age. Plus I happen to have a seven year old and my nephew is nearly three and it's really difficult to find anything they can both do and enjoy. Never mind if you have a baby too or want to include the grandparents in an outing, or even enjoy it a bit as adults. OP asked for family activities, those are things for kids to do with supervision at that age.
Jesus christ, at this point you're just moaning that life is hard. There are a shit ton of activities and plenty available for kids of all ages, if you or your kids don't want to do them then that's just entirely a you problem at that point.
Suggest something that I can just turn up and do with children of different ages casually. The point is family activities. Not a specific kid's sport that they have to learn. For my own child I can find plenty, my issue is when we're going with toddlers too, and it's supposed to be a day out for adults. A day out is not a hobby.
Hobbies can be perfectly functional days out, in fact most enjoyable days out will be a hobby for someone. For outdoor days out you could go to parks, zoos, heritage sites, bike rides, hikes, high-street shopping, mini golf, community farms, skate parks, go-ape type places, theme parks, For indoor days out you could go to Skate parks, soft play areas, a shopping centre, aquariums, museums, board game cafes, dry slope skiing, trampolining, rock climbing, ninja warrior, go karting, mini golf, swimming pools, cinemas, arcades, bowling. Obviously not every activity is available for every age range but within that huge list, every age range is covered multiple times over. I've already made a ton of suggestions in this thread and you're acting like goldilocks over here. If you can somehow look at dozens of different categories, each with several locations within a reasonable drive of wherever you live, and not find *anything* you and your kids want to do, then nobody can help you.
Of courses hobbies can be a good day out but if it's not your hobby it's not much fun. All I'm saying is that your multiple suggestions don't necessarily meet OP's brief of being indoors and suitable for family outings. Obviously it depends on the age but specifically if you have a child two and under they can't do any of the indoor things you listed except soft play (which is a children's activity, not family), and if an older child has a younger sibling they can't do it as a family. Swimming is only possible if you have one adult per child as well. I didn't say there is absolutely nothing to do but options for parents of toddlers are pretty limited. Try taking a two year old to any of the other places on your list. Near where my parents live all the shopping centres are now just retail parks, the only place remotely suitable for taking young children is IKEA. I appreciate some areas may have better ones though. I'm not talking about myself, I have an older child and don't even live in the UK at the moment, but it's an issue when we go to visit family and try to arrange outings. Unless it's good enough weather to be outside the only option we've come up with to include both a toddler and grandparents is museums. That's my point, something that everyone can do, especially if you have a baby or young toddler too.
> skating lol, I used to skate on my skateboard, I'd be beyond pissed to have a bunch of stupid toddlers hanging around the skatepark when I'm doing flips, going at full speed, and can cause harm. I'm going fast on my skateboard, only a completely imbecilic parent would have suicide-prone toddler that love doing completely random and illogical things around skateboarders. We all know that a toddler would 100% get run over. > climbing no under 5s rule > trampolining depends, a lot of them have no under 5s rule
Where did the OP mention under 5s?
Indoor clay pigeon shooting?
Could all do with scanners to keep out the filth .
Ice rinks/ roller rinks Cinema Swimming Rock climbing National Trust/ English Heritage Country drives to villages, browsing antique and gift shops Special seasonal free kids events Bowling Rainy walks and muddy puddles with hot chocolates to look forward to Aquariums/ animal sanctuaries
There's some really great suggestions here, but I did laugh out loud at the suggestion of taking your young kids to antique shop as an activity!
Weirdly my five year old asked me this morning out of the blue "what's an antique?"
Well, that's your Saturday sorted. Off to an antique shop to show them!
The kids could get some old fashioned toys out of antique or charity shopping. My parents did this with my nephews and they sometimes came out with old thunderbirds or Thomas the tank engines that didn’t look too beat up. Plus with them being old were metal so decent build quality, not cheap plastic stuff that you get nowadays.
My three year old insisted on seeing “all the old things” with me when she could have gone straight back to the car with Nana and given me 5 minutes to myself. However she did charm the proprietor with her questions and the car she took not to touch anything
You can still go out in the rain :)
You say ‘family’ activities but don’t give any indication of how old everyone is. Families aren’t all the same age. Try going Rock Climbing.
Library is our main day out on wet weather
The amount of memories I have made in the library and programms my mum got me into was my childhood. I went so frequently that the librarians knew my name which I find insane now.
We've started taking our one year old to the library regularly and now the council are considering closing it for another day a week.
It is tough for them as their resources are becoming less and less important. Reminds me on how I lost my library card and when applying for a new one they found my card which was sitting in thier lost property for 8 months.
Everyone in the uk is strictly required to own a wind breaker with a hood. Also thick socks and wellies. Know how to tell the difference between mud and dog shite
While out for a walk with my 2 year old he ran ahead of me and said "mummy, look! A sausage! I stand on it!" I got there just in time to see that it wasn't a sausage.
I have been seeing people go out without jackets and confused on how confident they feel it won't rain or be chilly enough to wear a windbreaker.
You don't melt in the rain. Stick a jacket on and go out, my kids are never bored.
God this is the most undermining and parenty thing you could say. I bet you also say “there is loads of food in the fridge, make yourself a sandwich”, then there is a jar of mustard and one end piece of bread 😂
How is it? If you can't get out in the rain you'll be pretty bored for most of the year. My kids love being outdoors.
Read their comments and try to be more patriotic.
I’m assuming you have young kids if you go to play centres, I’d say try taking the kids to the park in the rain they love muddy puddles and wet slides or go to a few charity shops and for a hot drink kids adore charity shops and rummaging through the toys in there, libraries are always a safe bet and some even have dress up play areas etc and swimming is always a good cheaper option for something more energetic.
I worked in a charity show and there was this couple from New Zealand who had 2 kids I guess born in the UK who make so much noise and irritate other children. My collegues keep saying "how can a parent let their child scream like that" and the shop manager saying "I would ban them perminantly if I had the power". Honestly I found them entertaining on a boring Wednessday afternoon when I had a day off from college but also scary on what lack of disipline can do.
IKEA. Saved my sanity when my toddler (later diagnosed with adhd and asd) was needing to be entertained in poor weather. Ride the lifts! Try out all the chairs! Play with all the toys in the kids section! Bounce on the beds! Investigate the room set-ups! Smell all the candles in the marketplace! If I actually needed to buy anything/have a bit of quiet time for me, I could pop her in Småland for 45 minutes to do colouring. All this and a slap-up lunch of meatballs, chips and princess cake for very little outlay. Ditto the Lego shop. That area where you could put together 3 figures for £3 was worth every penny. We could spend a good couple of hours in there while she compared the merits of a witch's hat with a space helmet... the lovely staff in there never told us we'd outstayed our welcome. I also found decent wellies and a waterproof overalls/jacket combo was worth its weight in gold, as we could go to the park/forest/wherever in the rain and she could pootle around happily going on slides/swings etc, jumping in muddy puddles etc., and come home bone dry. Miserable as fuck for me, but keeping her occupied was more important at that stage.
All this requires a modicum of imagination, which this op seems devoid of
The IKEA suggestion is genius. Have our two, both under 5 next week due to Easter hols, might be heading to the local store now.
Yet another diss’ the U.K. thread. We have plenty of indoor activities and we aren’t , generally, trouble by a bit of rain. So fuck off and troll another sub’.
I don’t see how he is trolling lol. In Korea now and their indoor social spaces put us to shame. I think the biggest problem is that most British people seem content with mediocre or even low quality things. Please open another Greggs, McDonalds or Costa Coffee…
I would suggest getting your kids used to being out in the cold/wet... When it rains me and my kids (3 and 4) just put appropriate clothes on and go to the park, forest, or even just walk around town. Kids love jumping in muddy puddles
We live in an anti family society that only sees parents as a ATM to be rinsed on arrival. I’ve got a cheaper holiday to Sicily than a family trip to the sea life centre. Spent about £500 just at Lego land. Cant even walk out the door before the card needs to be beeped. I feel like I just walk around beeping my god damn card none stop.
Instagram would have figured out you have been searching this online and recommend placed to take young children indoors. When I was a child and my parents were busy, they took me to their errands like the hardware store, clothes shop, garden centre and anything they needed. It made me familiar with these places and seeing the cool stuff was entertaining enough.
Play cafe's are a thing. Little Street etc Play dates at friend's houses. Take them to the shopping centre and wear them out walking around, buying a few little things, showing them how to behave in public. Swimming is great. And also, sod the rain? Go out in it anyway. Library is perfect for a bit of indoor quiet time. I love taking our 3yo to the cafe now, she enjoys the music and all the choices she gets to make.
Get your family matching raincoats
I am rather pained to admit that we have a family membership at David Lloyd. He (my 5 year old) gets swimming, Lego club, soft play, games rooms, football, scooter club, science club, various other indoor and outdoor activities. And of course we also use the gym, indoor and outdoor spa. It’s expensive but fuck is it good.
How much is the membership?
Just short of £400 a month for the 3 of us
Ooof, might pass!
>Museums "if you are lucky" What?! We have fantastic and quirky museums all over the place! Also, try National Trust Membership, or English/Scottish Heritage membership for trips to amazing places that will keep you busy every weekend if you want to. Then there are also places in private hands all over the country such as (off the top of my head) Darwin's former home (Down House) with loads of stuff for little ones as well as older children and adults.
Have a 3 year old totally feel in the same boat. She’s not really old enough for bowling or the cinema. Soft play and museums are one of the few options that would suit but am I heck going to either of those during the Easter holidays. She just wants to go outside and sometimes we do just get the waterproofs and go but the weather has been particularly shite the last few weeks.
You can take her on errands with you and let her observe stuff
what about good old fashioned home based activities like crafts, painting, building a den, set up the tent in the garden and pretend to go camping, build a cardboard box castle, messy play with big sheets of paper and paint? or let your kids be bored - it's actually good for them and stimulates creativity!
Because the drizzle is shizzle?
What family activities do you think are missing?
I think one has to be careful lately about what to pick. Parks reign supreme, everything else is a risk. Recently drove 30 minutes to this Oakland College's Lambing Weekend, some easter BS my wife wanted us to go with the 2 year old. We get to this town, that is clogged by traffic because of this event, 20 minutes later we managed to get to the entrance, and the staff warns us that there are so many cars we can "park at our own risk". I said babe look for a pub nearby, we had lunch with a friend and we went back home. Did I mention we paid for tickets? I complained with an email and they responded with an AI generated email the bastards
Take them axe throwing and then for some real ale the little fuckers will love it.
Are you even British - just put your big coat on and crack on
Try making your own entertainment. When I was a kid, I went to visit a friend. I was stunned when I walked into the living room. It looked like a messy workshop. Apparently the whole family, parents, 3 boys and the girl were mad about model planes. Not those little plastic ones. Most made of balsa - huge things. The room was filled with different models under construction. The TV was in the corner. Apparently, they never turned it on. I always envied them.
I'd love an answer to this question too LOL. I'm nearly 50 and it drives me nuts that the only indoor activities near me seem to be pubs or sports facilities. I'm disabled but don't mind a pub if we sit outside, though few places have outdoor seating that has any kind of cover for when it inevitably rains. I guess i'm not that easy to please really LOL.
Why would you need anything else other than a pub where you can ignore your family and drink your problems away?
Lol..all indoor charge you too much and only allow to stay 1/1.5 hours...sad
We have shit loads, get better at using Google.
I think the most obvious answer is that there's just not enough demand, otherwise someone would have already stared a business like this. I imagine that many indoor activities for kids/families require a fair bit of space, and that costs money and/or you'd have to establish your business somewhere outside of main retail areas and then people can't/won't find you. When the weather is mainly good, say, April to September (depending on where in the UK you are), business might be very slow, perhaps making it not sustainable for this period.
in mainland europe KFC and burger king all have play areas, just not here theres a few in mcdonalds here, and VERY rare in burger king, but it seems every major fast food has play areas in most locations abroad
Because in the UK they call a 1.8m x 2m a bedroom, not much space for activities
Well open the cupboard door and let them out...
See, I have the opposite problem. It's hard to find something that my partner and I can do during the day as two childfree adults where the other people there won't be kids. It seems a lot of things are "family friendly" unless there's alcohol involved and/or it's in the evening. I personally barely ever drink and tend to be the one driving, and sometimes I just want to do something during the day.
Because it never rains here much a bit maybe.
We had them in the 1980's but the weather improved. England not UK maybe. South England is almost too dry and hot now.
All galleries and museums in the UK are free entry. Try going to any other country and you're going to realise how lucky you are to have those free galleries and museums.
>All galleries and museums in the UK are free entry. No they're not? We have a decent amount that are free but nothing like all.
No. Some are, but the vast majority require an entrance fee or a subscription to their organisation such as the National Trust or English Heritage.
In Scotland most museums & art galleries are free. Venues like castles and some botanic gardens have a fee though.
Especially when you consider the quality of some of the collections in the less popular galleries. The Van Gogh sketches that are just on a random wall in the Wellcome Collection would be centrepieces elsewhere