The Zoomazium is a truly beautiful indoor play space with many lovely toys to explore. But, it was on our 4th visit to the Zoomazium that huge red flags appeared in terms of this being a safe place for our young children to play. Most children visiting the Zoomazium are playing with no supervision by their nannies or parents. The environment on busy days is so wild that children push each other, cut in front of each other, take other childrens' toys, engage in bullying while parents and nannies are fixated on their cell phones. On 2 occasions, I observed a nanny sleeping for 30 minutes and more! I alerted the staff and the staff did not wake her while the child in her care played completely unsupervised.
The norm @ the Zoomazium is truly imo wild rough play. In a recent visit to the Zoomazium, my young child completed her slide on the mountain slide. A child more than twice her size slid down without waiting for my child to have the chance to exit the slide and this larger child crashed into my small child traumatizing her and causing an injury. The child who crashed into her did not even stop to see if my child was okay and this larger child's caregivers were nowhere to be found. On this day, I then placed myself at the top of the mountain slide during the time that my young children were using the slide to prevent further injury to my children by verbally instructing children at the top to wait their turn becoming a traffic director because parents were not there at all helping their children to be respectful and kind as they played. One child who was about 4 x's the size of my children was very aggressive in trying to push other smaller children out of his way claiming it was his turn when in fact, it was not his turn and he was bullying other children with no regard for their safety as he played.
This same day, a 10 month old baby was trampled by older children running wild resulting in a busted lip and mouth!
When I requested from zoo staff the rules of conduct for the Zoomazium, I received no response. There is a sign posted near the mountain slide stating that adult supervision is required, however, I have never witnessed staff enforce this rule or even encourage it. Staff often places rows of chairs in front of the mountain slide of about 10 or 12 chairs and adults sit in the chairs head buried in their cell phones with no interaction or supervision of their children.
There have been many occasions where there has been NO staff on the floor for long periods of time. A single staff member sits @ the entrance - there is rarely staff circulating throughout the play environment.
My conclusion: The Zoomazium is a gorgeous indoor play room. If you value kind, respectful play behavior and aim to protect your child from bullying and rough play, then imo the Zoomazium is not a safe place for your child. Because what I have witnessed as the norm on the mountain slide and all throughout the play area is very aggressive pushing by children and wild behavior, I sincerely fear that a child could get very seriously injured because the height of the slide is high enough that being pushed off @ the top could be a serious matter. Also, I did report the incident where my very young child was injured to zoo staff. The subsequent encounters with staff I found to be incredibly disturbing and I no longer feel safe @ the zoo or with zoo staff. I am truly left speechless by the experiences.
Kindness, respect, and teaching taking turns are paramount to the healthy development of a baby and child. Sadly, the norm appears to be that most caregivers and zoo staff do not value these very important aspects of child development.
In rainy Seattle, having indoor places to bring our children is important. But, our children are constantly learning in all places where they are. imo, bringing children and babies to an play environment that does not encourage respectful, kind and healthy play may result in emotional, mental and even physical harm to our children. IMO, the benefits in situations like this do not outweigh the possible harm done. read more