Discussions

I know what you mean, when the cold days start to pile up the consecutive days in the house can have a bit of a cabin fever effect and you have to find a balance between outings and wallet. Some days I wonder if we should just park the cars in the driveway during winter, heat the garage and use it for an indoor play structure for half the year... not that that would necessarily be cheap either!  
 
Playtime has a decent setup but can only do it so often before the fee starts to add up.  
 
Mcds can be a lot of fun if you get the right mix of kids, but sometimes at the busier times if there are too many older kids it makes it tougher for a younger one.  
 
BK isn't as busy as you'd think on most days based on any of my experiences. Even though the sign says it's for age 4 and up any time I've been there it's usually 4 and under that use it... assume because it's smaller.  
 
Pizza Place/thunderbird has a nice big play area for restaurant customers, I'd put it right up there with Mcds.  
 
34th St Bar & grill has a decent little indoor playground that kids can use if you're at the restaurant.  Comparable to the plastic ones a lot of people have in their backyard during the summer. 
 
There's also the Y "gym and swim" on Tuesday mornings. Bouncy castle, toys, etc plus access to their quality indoor playground.  
 
Just wish the mall could spare a few square feet to a small play area like so many malls seem to be able to. I know they have to make money and it wouldn't generate them dollars directly but we for one would spend even more time in the mall and because of that even more dollars if they had one!

Edited by Adam, 2017-02-26 16:08:13

Maybe not quite an energy burner but we make a point of doing some grocery trips at Heritage coop. Between the car carts and the little play things they have at check outs it makes for an okay little outing.  
 
It's not that the mall has completely turned the other cheek to kids... they do have "story time" once in a while, have the colouring tables, the "kiddie cruzers" and kids seem to like climbing on the metered ride-on vehicles... it all for the most part just doesn't seem to add up to a reason to go to the mall so much as something to pass a few minutes while you're there. They did experiment with a bit of a playground of sorts that was removed for safety reasons (the type you'd often find in a backyard). I'd love if they could take more of a run at it and perhaps compare notes with all of the other malls that do have one but you know what they say about begging and choosing  
 
Another thing I've seen elsewhere is a coffee shop that has a corner setup as a contained play area. Parents pay for their coffee and maybe a little snack, kiddo(s) have something engaging to do while they're drinking it. Something sort of like this was tried in town a number of years ago and didn't work out, maybe the coffee wasn't very good?  
To ask someone like Forbidden Flavours or Coffee Culture to do this would have to have a strong enough case that it would bring in business relative to the table space they'd be giving up... something that those places don't always have to spare at certain times of the day. When you get a group of kids together the volume tends to go up and maybe some shops don't see that fitting in with what they're trying to accomplish. All I know is that we'd end up diverting our coffee business more often to a shop that has something like this.  
 
Don't know if the healthy living centre has anything, but even a weekly hour or two in the winter might be a good way for BU to build early relationships with kids and parents in the community.  
 
Also wonder if there's any kind of opportunity for the Keystone or Town Centre to use some of their space even if it's something one day per week. But both can't be expected to do it as a charity so there has to be some form of business/profit incentive.  
 
Not always practical or cheap but we try to mix in day and overnight trips. St Vital mall in Wpg has a nice play area, IKEA (even if the rest of the place bores to tears ), the Children's Museum is good for a couple hours, am sure there are countless others that would justify a separate thread. Minot mall has a decent play area too. Grand Forks Canad Inn water park is good for a day. We drove out to Edmonton a couple months ago, if you stay in the mall hotel it's a great "under one roof" place to spend a couple days.  
 
In saying all of this today's a decent enough we'll be bundling up, heading outside and making the best of it!