The Ball Pit
Who in the world ever came up with the ball pit? Hundreds of hollow plastic, multi-colored balls that fill a plastic lined "pool". Remember the ball pits at Chuck E Cheese? With food and God only knows what else in them. Yick. I think they are still a major attraction at IKEA where you let your kids get lost in the ballroom while you get lost in the store. People even have videos on You Tube of their children working their way through a ball pit. A little known statistic is that 4 out of 5 basements in the greater Cleveland area have their own ball pits (inflatable kiddie pool with balls).
I don't get it one bit. I detest these things- specifically the public ones. I never understood as a kid why on earth you wanted to go get stuck like a pig in mud in the ball pit. Or worse, go horizontal in the ball pit and get buried alive, like quicksand. It is a weird weird way of entertaining kids and there is not enough Purell or Lysol in the world to convince me that they are good clean fun. But man, let me tell you - as much as I dread a ball pit the little people LOVE it. I mean MORE THAN ELMO kind of love it.
Today I took my 2 year old to a "play center" for his weekly playgroup. (translation: mom's weekly social outing with other moms who really had lives before this whole kid thing) On the way there, I thought "Please don't let this place have a gross ball pit" I grabbed an extra packet of hand sanitizer wipes, said one last Hail Mary and in we went. Before I even signed the waiver (which legally clears them of any and every possible thing the ball pit is responsible for) I could hear it. I didn't even turn around and knew exactly where the damn thing was - the south east corner. Ball pit Feng Shui probably says to place the pit there to bring more happy children through the doors of one's overpriced play world. So as I walked in I thought, "Let's head for the farthest corner away from the pit . I am not even looking over there. Maybe he won't see it, or will get distracted by the insanely well equipped children's kitchen." Ha. My offspring bee-lined for the ball pit. Couldn't get all 35 inches of himself into that thing fast enough. Laughed. Giggled. He honestly wouldn't have been happier in a vat of Chocolate Milk.
All I could do was smile back and offer up a little prayer that he didn't contract MRSA or lose a sock. He had a great time and a 45 minute bath this evening.
posted by Amy at
4:08 PM
6 Comments:
welcome, amy! i once spent some time in a place called bright child (or something similar). there were super light balls everywhere, i think they were like nerf balls, so you could roll in them, shoot them from "cannons," whatever. i threw them at my daughter for about twenty minutes off and on, and threw out my arm for the entire softball season.
I could be mistaken, but I believe the pits at Ikea are filled with meatballs.
That might be true, Scott, and have you had those Ikea meatballs? Talk about making you sick. Very overrated, those Swedes and their balls.
Amy, I think we were the first generation of youngin's (late 70's early 80's) to grow up with the plastic balls in our lives. And I can tell you that I NEVER got it back then and still don't. I thought it was bizarre that all these kids were getting so worked up over a bunch of colored balls. And it reminded me too much of the trash compactor scene in Star Wars where they were up to their waists in gunk that hid what was truly going on underneath. Then BAM! That freaky snake thing comes out from the murky shit. I always felt there were hideous rodents under those balls just gnawing away at kids' feet all day.
I have been up since 3 a.m. dealing with a puking ball pit participant. There is no doubt in my mind my son caught some nasty virus from the thing. Now I gotta hang tight and see if my 9 month old son catches it.
Frigging ball pit.
That fucking blows! You know, Amanda and I were at a baby store today where they actually sold bags of those fricking balls. No need to go out anymore to get those nasty bugs, just throw the balls in a big cardboard box in your own house and watch it like your own personal petrie dish.
I think you all have some sort of ocd. A public pool would be way worse. I for one loved those ball pits. I still do but people look at me funny if i try to get into one. I'm hoping to have one installed into my house. -Taseko
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