These are a few pictures from my child's birthday party with her cousins, where we planned a play date for them in an indoor play area.
Whenever I see my kids enjoying such places it reminds me of my childhood. When I was a kid i used to be very excited to be outdoors with my playmates. We used to run, climb trees, chase butterflies, play in mud, cycle, and play out other types of outdoor games like, badminton, cricket, volleyball, and whatnot. Our parents literally had to drag us all back to our houses after it got dark.
Contrary to all that, now the world has completely changed. Kids find their world in their gadgets. They even want to explore the outdoors through their devices with their virtual friends whom they have never met. Even when they are taken out, the options for them to play are mostly enclosed. All these malls had come up with new concepts of play zones where they provide them with all trendy videogames, ball play pits, trampolines, sand pits, coloring areas, building games, and everything attractive and stimulating under one roof.
These are good and comfortable, provided all at one place where you can probably put your kids to play and go shopping, grocery, or dining just beside that area, which is convenient and safe. Even the atmosphere and temperatures will be very favorable and predictable. Though they are way more expensive, they still have special attention and safety norms to make sure your kids are safe.
But, are they really that beneficial for this generation? Because of this change, they are not exposed to nature or different climates, and they lack learning various life skills that can only be learned when we are left out openly in the fields. There are also a lot of other drawbacks as well related to health, where kids' immunities are compromised nowadays because of minimal exposure to nature and climate; because all kids are dumped together in one enclosed space, they are highly prone to catching diseases from each other. They are intolerant to the changing weather and tend to fall sick and catch allergies quite quickly and frequently.
Even though we parents know all these issues and problems with current setups, we are still helpless and tend to take up such options for our kids to fit in with the trend and to cope with our kids and their generation's relatability.
My friend recently took this up as a new business in my hometown and I am sure he will excel in it.