Playcentres

Today I dropped $50 at a local play centre. Seriously, I paid $40 entry to watch my children and ensure they behaved and played nicely, whilst every other mother sat on their arse, drinking coffee and chatting to their friends. We had only been there half an hour when I thought i could hear Ryan crying. I dismissed it because the crying was coming from a different direction to where I had last seen Ryan. Anyway the crying persisted so I went to investigate. I found Ryan on the floor of the ball pit having his eyes gouged out by a two year old whilst all the other kids in the ball pit looked on. So I jumped in there and got him and told off the little girl (Hoping her mother was close by so she could get a clue!) Then as I was comforting him Matthew brought Ben up to me. He had been slapped by an older child and he had bitten the inside of his cheek. There was blood running down his face! So I now had two children to give the evil eye too! Fast forward another hour (after spending $10 on chips for lunch!) and I could hear Ben crying. The same girl who eye gouged Ryan was doing it to him. However the story ends differently here I then watched in slow mo (pushing through the crowd...) as Ben grabs the little girls arm and sinks his teeth into her!!!!! I get to him and firstly check out his eye then I scold him (gently but still) then I march the girl back to her mother (as i had figured out who she was by the number of times she had been hauled back there!) I apologised for my son biting her but explained he did it in retaliation for her eye gouging him. She look mildly surprised then she saw the bite marks and was all set to ark up when Ryan arrived and I said "Yes not the first time today she drew blood earlier on my other son too!" I showed her his face still red with scratch marks the worst on his eyelid and marched my children away.
So whilst the boys had a lovely time I hated every minute of it. It stinks being the only responsible mother. (and i do mean only! All the others were sitting whilst I was following where mine where. At the very least I was watching from a chair but usually I was beside the play structure) Yes ,we all need time out but choose the time more carefully when other children aren't at risk!
On a positive note though, I loved watching the boys play together. There were a hundred kids they could have played with. The could have played by themselves but they were the three musketeers! They looked out for each other and had a ball together. They really looked like they were good mates!