Overcrowded and Much More

Explore & Much More

Address: 3827 N. Southport, Chicago

Hours: Monday - Friday: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. & 2:30 - 5:00 p.m.

Admission: $12 per child; $9 for each additional sibling

YAY!

• Offers hands-on learning? Sort of
• Engages an active toddler in play? Yes
• Provides interaction with other children? Yes (too much)
• Allows children room to play without long waits? No
• Is clean? Sort of

I begrudgingly give this one "YAY!" They don't make it easy on parents and it's hard enough to get the kids ready and wrangled, it shouldn't be misery once you get there.

After driving around for 30 minutes trying to find parking, we walked four blocks in the cold to the smallest, most unwelcoming play place. I do realize rents are very high in the city, but they just did not think through the space requirements for parents with multiple children and multiple layers. They require shoes to be removed (to be expected), but then don't offer enough room to do so or enough room to store them. So kids were throwing other people's shoes around, and parents are trying to corral their children and remove their shoes before they sprinted through the front gate, which other children kept opening.

The admission process would make a great case study for an operations research class. None of us knew when or where to pay and each person had to fill out a waiver (to be expected), but then she couldn't make out anyone's name so she re-wrote it and re-wrote each person's phone number. You just don't have time for inefficiencies when your child is about to take off headlong down a flight of stairs.

It is a two-story play place, but they have crammed too many structures and toys into the narrow space. It is just far too small so you're tripping over toys, kids, and other adults. And the poor toddlers kept getting smacked in the head by diaper bags.

Finally, the crawler area was a total joke. It was too small for them to move or roll or really do much of anything. I had to pick him up at one point for his own safety.

There are so many great play places in Chicagoland, you can skip this one.