We have long heard the rumor that it is important for parents to “tire out” their children during the day.
My wife and I thought, “Hmmm, I see,” but gradually we began to realize that we also had to be concerned about this issue.
Fortunately, our son Takeh sleeps well at night. However, on weekdays he takes a nearly three-hour nap at daycare, but on his days off he doesn’t nap very often. Without naps, he has plenty of time.
What happens when a child has a lot of time? He gets rough with his free time. He starts throwing toys around the house. We don’t want that, so we have to give him as much playtime as possible on our days off.
In our family, we both love our only son. So while one of us is taking care of the child, the other one rarely spends time alone. So on weekends, the three of us usually travel and do something together as a family.
On this day, we visited the “Bonelund Playing World” factory in Ariake, the waterfront area of Tokyo.
Bonelund is a manufacturer of toys for toddlers, mainly made of wood. They have developed an indoor playground for toddlers. I did not know about it until my child was born.
When we became parents, we often found things that we had not seen in the world before. This facility is like that. If I had been single, even if I had passed by this place, I would not have remembered it.
Like many of the indoor children’s facilities we visited, this one costs money. We appreciated the fact that there is a one-day pass for holidays, but Takeh, who just turned two, does not have the stamina for a full day of play. So we decided to pay the facility a usage fee on a pay-as-you-go basis.
On holidays, the first 30 minutes per child is 800 yen. After that, the fee is 200 yen for every 10 minutes.
In other words, one hour of play costs 1,400 yen. The price is not much different from ordering unlimited drinks at an izakaya (Japanese pub). However, the comparison is a bit odd.
In addition, the accompanying adult also has to pay. For adults, the fee is 600 yen, regardless of how long the child stays.
In the end, it costs 2,000 yen per hour for a parent and child.
It is like an aristocrat’s game.
Since we do not have the financial means to spend hours here, we decided to try it for just one hour.
In our family, we both love our only son. So while one of us is taking care of the child, the other one rarely spends time alone. So on weekends, the three of us usually travel and do something together as a family.
Only one parent could go in as an escort while the other waited outside. Or the parents could switch places in the middle of the session. We could have switched during the tour at no extra charge.
However, our goal was to “watch the kids play. In the end, two adults went inside at the same time, adding to the facility’s bottom line.
The indoor facility is expensive, but we would like to use it from time to time. We like to use the indoor facility from time to time, even though it is expensive, because we get to see how physically fit he is and what his interests are.
What we learned this time was that he was able to walk on a cane. The reason we felt safe letting him try these things is because there is a padded mat underneath. Even if he falls, he won’t get hurt, so we can safely encourage his motivation.
It’s very good that we can let children be free without saying, “It’s dangerous, so don’t do it.
(2023.03.25)
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