If you’re a parent reading this, chances are you will have spent a disproportionate amount of time in Smyths Toys since your little one came screaming into the world.
Sometimes out of necessity – birthday and Christmas present shopping – and sometimes out of desperation – it’s raining, the kids are doing your head in, and you don’t have enough money to take them both to the cinema with everything else that entails.
But do you know what? I genuinely love going to Smyths Toys. Not just as a time killer or a place to get things ticked off a list, I mean I love it.
Yes, it’s like an indoor play centre, a toy museum, and a sanity saver all rolled into one, but it’s also just a fun place to be. Even if you are… ahem… older.
Here’s why.
Free Entertainment
While Smyths Toys is a shop, you don’t have to buy anything just because you have spent 45 minutes in there. It’s therefore free entertainment.
If you prep the kids that this is strictly a ‘just looking’ visit you don’t have to spend a penny. Even if you give them £5 each to spend it’s cheaper than pretty much everything else. My two can happily spend an hour just exploring the aisles.
It’s unstructured and they are free to roam, pick things up without being told off, get excited and be a bit loud. I don’t let them scream or anything, but one of them shouting “Mum look! It’s a *whatever the hell they are interested in this week*” across the shop floor isn’t the end of the world in there.
They can press all the buttons, have a go on the scooters and sit in those massive electric cars (seriously, who has space for one of those 2 ton F1 cars for a 5 year old?), and run off without being yelled at. They’re not causing chaos, they’re enjoying themselves, and we’re all in a good mood.
Thinking Time for Parents (and sneaky mental note taking)
Depending on the time of year (and how much sleep I had the night before) I can also use a trip to Smyths Toys for my own benefit.
If I’m an exhausted shell of my former self, I can sit down on one of those steps for reaching the higher shelves and zone out. Or be the worst parent in the shop and stare into my phone.
If I’m a bit more switched on and it’s October, or a few months before one of their birthdays, I can sneakily make mental notes on the sorts of things they are spending time playing with, and get them presents they will love without needing to ask for them. I’ve been known to take photos of prices too, then see if I can find it cheaper online. I often can’t – Smyths are pretty good to be fair to them.
Of course, you might be there to shop. As crazy as that sounds 😂
If you are there to buy presents for other people’s kids, it’s one of the rare opportunities to shop without being pestered. Doesn’t happen at the supermarket: “Mum I’m hungry”. Doesn’t happen in clothes shops: “Mum I’m bored”. Doesn’t happen in IKEA: “Mum I’m lost”.
But in Smyths Toys, you can get your shopping done in peace. If anything it will be you nagging the kids to leave rather than the other way around.
Tag-Team Parenting
Every Smyths Toys Superstore I have ever been to has been on a larger retail park.
Given the kids are half free to wonder off and do as they please inside the store, it makes sense for one parent to stick around while the other goes off and does something useful. Like sit down and have a nice coffee in peace.
When me and my fella are there, one of us will go and do some browsing at a shop that interests us, or pick up some bits from the other shops the kids don’t want to go to. Maybe do a once round TK Maxx or something like that.
It’s a bit of a break and allows you to be you instead of Mum for half an hour. I might even get my ear buds out stick a podcast on while I’m at it. Really spoil myself.
If the kids are occupied long enough you might even be able to get half an our each.
It’s a Genuinely Joyful Place To Be
Maybe it’s the scale of the place making me feel like a kid again, maybe it’s all those bright colours surrounding me, I don’t know, but Smyths Toys brings out the kid in me. Some of the stuff I see in there genuinely makes me excited.
“Our garden could do with one of those wooden climbing frame, slide and swing thingies that cost £1,500” I say to my fella. Who pretends he can’t hear me as he studies the back of a PlayStation game box.
I love wandering around and seeing how awesome kids toys are these days compared to what we were given to play with. I had a stick and an old bicycle wheel and that was about it! I’m obviously kidding, but I genuinely marvel at some of the stuff I see on the shelves. I’m equal parts jealous of my kids and excited for them. Everything is so much cooler these days.
Although if I ever used the word ‘cool’ in front of my eldest he would probably throw up.
I know it’s all consumerism, I know some of it is tat, but a lot of it isn’t. A lot of it is innovative or outdoorsy or great for the kids’ imaginations, and that stuff is worth paying for.
It’s just generally a happy place to be. Kids spending their Christmas money, getting a treat from their parents for behaviour or some achievement, spending big on something they have saved up for. It’s lovely.
The staff don’t always look as thrilled to be there as I do, but I can ignore the grumpy ones.
A Parents Cheat Code
I think I also partly enjoy these trips to Smyths Toys because I secretly know I am getting one over on my kids 🤣 They think they are getting to do something they want to do, but actually, they are doing something I want them to do.
Don’t look at me like that, these small victories keep me sane!
Seriously though, when you think about it, toy shop visits tick a lot of boxes:
- Happy kids
- Happy parents
- Gets you all out the house
- Indoors if weather is bad, air conditioned if weather is hot
- Free (well, it can be)
- Opportunity to get present ideas
- Opportunity to escape for a while
- Always open when you need it
So if you don’t already take advantage of the parenting cheat code that is Smyths Toys, find your nearest retail park and get on it. Just don’t park near the McDonald’s (there is always a McDonald’s) or you will have a battle to fight when you’re trying to get them back in the car.