What local kids location in the burbs had me dying to get back to the peace and quite of the the city? That would be The Tree House Play Cafe in Chestnut Hill. As soon as we got there I realized that we had made a terrible mistake. This was so not the morning I had in mind. The place way small, overcrowded and so disappointing.
How could I lead my family astray this far? Well I will tell you. I just realized when I went to grab pictures to add to the blog how misleading they are. In fact there is no climbing equipment, train table or cute little play kitchen like they show in the picture below. That giraffe must have moved on to greener pastures because he wasn't there either.
The atmosphere reminded me of classroom that just found out they were having a substitute and early dismissal after a round of pixi sticks. The chaos wasn't cute, fun or the least bit enjoyable. The place is a hybrid. Part cafe, part play area and everything is way too small. You start by being smooshed in the check in area which is packed with parents and little ones. Then you go into the "cafe" part which is a sea of overweight suburban moms in sweatshirts zoning out and pretending to watch their children. Unfortunately I will be standing since the moms don't really get up much leave very little turn over of the tables. I found one that was missing the chairs but at least I had a place to put the car seat. It was right next to a mom that had her nose in her laptop. She looked up at me once with one of those interrupt my "me time" and I will kill you looks. So we didn't really chat it up.
We threw our jackets on the floor...since that was the only place for them and my husband and son headed into the play area. The play area is actually the smallest area in the place. The play area was filled with colliding, coughing, runny nose kids swirling around different mom cliques sitting on the floor. As far as the toy selection it pretty much resembled a grocery store the night before a major snow storm. Anything you really wanted they were out of. The play kitchen was bare because one little munchkin had all the wooden food in a wagon and was taking her time wheeling it around and around the small play area.
What they are not showing is all the merchandise that is throw in front of the hand washing station. If fact I didn't even see this until we were leaving and I was about 4 feet from it.
This train table...totally not there
The most disappointing thing I noticed was that very few parents were actually playing with their kids. The Tree House Play Cafe is basically a dumping ground for suburban moms.
Oh and how could I forget the woman that was flashing everyone while she was falling asleep breast feeding. I so did not need to see that. These women made me look like mom of the year.
These stacking blocks...totally not there.
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