kakariki

Last week I went to the Highpoint Shopping Centre with a couple of friends from out of town as they were keen to check out the new Indiana Jones movie. While they were at the cinema I decided to scout around and pick up a few things I needed.

After a couple of hours, I decided it was time for a break and I looked to find somewhere I could sit down and let my 15 month old out of the pram for a stretch and a crawl around.

But do you think I could find anywhere to do this?

One would think in a shopping centre the size of Highpoint there would be one area where our little ones could get out for a bit.  But there is absolutely nothing.  I went into one store that had a very small play pen with a handful of plastic toys in it.  And there are a few kiddie rides around (two that I saw were out of order…) but nowhere for wee ones to crawl around.

I asked a couple of the security staff if they knew of anywhere and they couldn’t come up with anything either.

Given the numbers of mothers who use this complex you would think that they would’ve thought about this when designing the complex.  I know of lots of other shopping centres that have a run around place for small kids.  But not Highpoint.  There is a video game centre called Play time (or something like that) but they don’t have anything for little ones either.

And don’t even get me started on the lack of lifts for prams to get around…

I think it should be part of planning permits for all future shopping centres to include a safe and secure play area for parents to allow their kids out of the pram for a break.  And it should be free.  It’s the least they should do given the enormous profits these megamalls make at the expense of our small community shopping strips.