Less than 24 hours before I gave birth to Carter.. Chris, Hunter and I were out on a dinner-date with friends. We wanted the kids to have some fun at the Kids Club event held at Brewerkz. For just $9 per kid, they were given unlimited access to bouncy castles and slides, ride-em vehicles etc etc. Better yet, it was 35% off selected items on the menu for us adults, as well as a chance to sit back and enjoy a beer.

It all seemed too good to be true. And it sort of was 😉

It was held at a lovely location since Brewerkz is right on the water front. And since we went in the late afternoon, the weather was cool enough to chill outdoors. However, we felt the Kids Club event was pretty poorly ran.

First of all, they obviously didn’t limit the number of kids, so it was packed. That’s fine, but the majority of kids there HAD NO MANNERS. It was pretty awful witnessing the bad behaviour of the children there, and especially disgusting seeing their parents standing right there either encouraging the bad behaviour or ignoring it. NO ONE made their child apologise for their actions, let alone tell their kid to refrain. I’m talking about the kids pushing and shoving the younger ones aside, kicking them away, and barging themselves forward – very typical “ME ME ME” syndrome. Has society really come to this? Where people don’t teach their children basic manners? One lady there even urged her son “Quick, go forward! Go first!” as he pushed a little kid aside so he could go down the slide first. Ugh. There were no staff on hand to enforce any sort of order, so our kids simply couldn’t go into the bouncy area or they’d be trampled to death.

The outside area with the ride-em cars was a fantastic concept and catered for the younger ones, except a lot of the older kids squished themselves inside the cars… and refused to get out, even whilst the parents stood by! And of course, the older kids are faster and bigger than our little ones, so all the little kids didn’t get a chance on the cars, unless their parent intervened.

Because of the lack of staff enforcing ‘good behaviour’ rules, and getting kids to wait their turn, we found the event really chaotic and the kids pretty much got nothing out of it – in fact, the free playgrounds in malls or parks are way better for them. It also left me with a bad taste in my mouth and quite a negative impression of the way some parents bring up their children. But it’s also made me realise that we must be even more vigilant about ensuring our children mind their “P’s and Q’s” and proactively demonstrate the concept of sharing, courtesy and good manners.

The 35% off food offering was actually on a very very small selection, which was a bit sad as I’d loved to have tried out the rest of their enticing menu! But what we ordered was actually very good, and in decently sized portions (we were initially wondering if portions would be 35% small as well, heh). Thoroughly enjoyed it, and the boys had a great time relaxing with their cold beers.