Ikea play land?

meghans30

I'm headed to Ikea later in the week and am considering letting my 3 yo play in their small land. Anyone do this before? How does it work?

britanyd

I've done it, and it was AWESOME.  I'm also the parent that lets their kids play at Mickey D's playlands, so the germ-sharing doesn't bother me very much.

I'm sure it varies by IKEA but here's how mine worked.

Kids must be fully potty trained, no pull-ups.  Kids must be 37" or taller.  I took them, filled out a little thing about name, address, etc.  Kids took off their shoes and put them in bins, they put a sticker with the kid's name on their back and let them in.

They had all kinds of IKEA toys in there to play with, and my girls loved it.  They had a little place for kids to rest where they were able to see a Disney style movie (Monsters Inc when we went).  They had ample help watching kids (probably 5 or 6 adults).  They would refuse kids after they were at capacity.  They had pagers for each parent for emergencies.

We went on a weekend and they were busy, so we were given a time limit of 45 minutes.  It was just long enough to get through the store, but not really enough time to SEARCH or really COMPARE stuff.

meghans30

britanyd:

I've done it, and it was AWESOME.  I'm also the parent that lets their kids play at Mickey D's playlands, so the germ-sharing doesn't bother me very much.

I'm sure it varies by IKEA but here's how mine worked.

Kids must be fully potty trained, no pull-ups.  Kids must be 37" or taller.  I took them, filled out a little thing about name, address, etc.  Kids took off their shoes and put them in bins, they put a sticker with the kid's name on their back and let them in.

They had all kinds of IKEA toys in there to play with, and my girls loved it.  They had a little place for kids to rest where they were able to see a Disney style movie (Monsters Inc when we went).  They had ample help watching kids (probably 5 or 6 adults).  They would refuse kids after they were at capacity.  They had pagers for each parent for emergencies.

We went on a weekend and they were busy, so we were given a time limit of 45 minutes.  It was just long enough to get through the store, but not really enough time to SEARCH or really COMPARE stuff.

Thanks for the info! The germs do not bother me at all, it's more leaving him with people I do not know. 

jen5-03

meghans30:

britanyd:

I've done it, and it was AWESOME.  I'm also the parent that lets their kids play at Mickey D's playlands, so the germ-sharing doesn't bother me very much.

I'm sure it varies by IKEA but here's how mine worked.

Kids must be fully potty trained, no pull-ups.  Kids must be 37" or taller.  I took them, filled out a little thing about name, address, etc.  Kids took off their shoes and put them in bins, they put a sticker with the kid's name on their back and let them in.

They had all kinds of IKEA toys in there to play with, and my girls loved it.  They had a little place for kids to rest where they were able to see a Disney style movie (Monsters Inc when we went).  They had ample help watching kids (probably 5 or 6 adults).  They would refuse kids after they were at capacity.  They had pagers for each parent for emergencies.

We went on a weekend and they were busy, so we were given a time limit of 45 minutes.  It was just long enough to get through the store, but not really enough time to SEARCH or really COMPARE stuff.

Thanks for the info! The germs do not bother me at all, it's more leaving him with people I do not know. 

We live about 15min from IKEA. DD *loves* to go. I've never had them limit the time anything other than one hour. DD is tall and potty trained early, so she actually went at 2.5yo. Even though she would cry at daycare dropoff, the ball pit enchanted her and she barely said goodbye to me.

No pullups, no diapers and 37" is the rules at my ikea too. And the child is supposed to be able to go to the bathroom completely alone, which I didn't know when DD was 2.5, but I always take her immediately before going in so I don't think she's ever used the bathroom there.

There's often a craft to do too. If you go during a weekday, they still might be at capacity because they have fewer people on duty which means they can take less kids - sometimes as few as 6.

meghans30

jen5/03:

meghans30:

britanyd:

I've done it, and it was AWESOME.  I'm also the parent that lets their kids play at Mickey D's playlands, so the germ-sharing doesn't bother me very much.

I'm sure it varies by IKEA but here's how mine worked.

Kids must be fully potty trained, no pull-ups.  Kids must be 37" or taller.  I took them, filled out a little thing about name, address, etc.  Kids took off their shoes and put them in bins, they put a sticker with the kid's name on their back and let them in.

They had all kinds of IKEA toys in there to play with, and my girls loved it.  They had a little place for kids to rest where they were able to see a Disney style movie (Monsters Inc when we went).  They had ample help watching kids (probably 5 or 6 adults).  They would refuse kids after they were at capacity.  They had pagers for each parent for emergencies.

We went on a weekend and they were busy, so we were given a time limit of 45 minutes.  It was just long enough to get through the store, but not really enough time to SEARCH or really COMPARE stuff.

Thanks for the info! The germs do not bother me at all, it's more leaving him with people I do not know. 

We live about 15min from IKEA. DD *loves* to go. I've never had them limit the time anything other than one hour. DD is tall and potty trained early, so she actually went at 2.5yo. Even though she would cry at daycare dropoff, the ball pit enchanted her and she barely said goodbye to me.

No pullups, no diapers and 37" is the rules at my ikea too. And the child is supposed to be able to go to the bathroom completely alone, which I didn't know when DD was 2.5, but I always take her immediately before going in so I don't think she's ever used the bathroom there.

There's often a craft to do too. If you go during a weekday, they still might be at capacity because they have fewer people on duty which means they can take less kids - sometimes as few as 6.

Hmm, also very good to know. I am going prepared to let him walk around with us, but am hoping he will be able to play. 

evaazalea

My DS love the play area there so much. All the same rules here so I assume that's the standard. We asked DS if he wanted to go on Saturday, he got so excited about going that he ran head first into a door knob and we got to go to the ER instead.

Yodajo

Our Ikea has the one hour time limit, but  just saw here: https://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=3106412

that there is a new Ikea Family Program where you can get an extra half hour if you sign up, plus free coffee and a frozen yogurt.

CleoKitty

Boo! We went to an Ikea yesterday while visiting my sister here in CT and dd was dying to go to the play land. Unfortunately though she's exceptionally short for her age and is nowhere near the 37 inch cutoff so they wouldn't allow her even though she's clearly older than some of the other kids that were there. She was devastated. She wanted to check out their ball pit soooo badly! At this rate she'll probably be 5-6 years old before she's tall enough.