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Just How Friendly is Your Play Area?

From time to time, we receive anonymous e-mail suggestions that provide food for thought. Here's a recent letter we'd like to share with our members:

Reading your criteria for child friendly businesses, I feel that play areas are a bad idea. Parents leave their children in this area and often their attention wanders to the merchandise. This leaves the children vulnerable to stranger abduction. There is also the problem of small children then wandering through the store looking for their parents, at the best, damaging merchandise, at the worst, going outside of the store and becoming lost or injured. Please consider removing this suggestion from your list.

The correspondent raises a very good point. When considering play areas for the list of child-friendly criteria, we focused on the types of successful play areas we'd encountered with our own children: those in small retail shops where the play area is within a few feet of everything else the parent might be doing or looking at. In a few cases, play areas in larger stores are fenced or gated so that children cannot wander away unnoticed. All of these we've seen are within eyesight of the parent; these shops are relatively small.

As we expand our criteria, we plan to add longer explanations, recommendations and resources for use by businesses and other establishments. Here is an expanded description of safe, appropriate play areas.

Child-Friendly Play Areas in Retail Environments

Successful play areas can be designated in retail shops, such as in the children's section of a bookstore or in a corner of a video or clothing store. However, children should never be more than a few feet from their parent or caregiver, and the parent should continue to supervise the child's activity at all times.

Other considerations include the durability and age-appropriateness of the toys and activities offered. Many manufacturers offer low-cost play tables and activity centers that have fully attached pieces (no chokable parts, and pieces can't be lost or become hazardous underfoot). Here are a few sources for high-quality play tables:

• The Children's Furniture Co., www.childrens-furniture.com, (800) 697-3408
• KiddinAround, www.kiddinaround.com, (877) 965-7058
• Koala Corporation, www.koalabear.com, (888) 733-3456

There are important exceptions to these guidelines, which should be noted. For instance, IKEA stores have supervised play areas, divided into younger and older age groups with age-appropriate toys and play structures. Parents sign their kids in and out, and qualified childcare staff is on duty at all times, supervising play. Parents can view these areas on video monitors throughout the store, for added comfort.

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