Lorena and Wilson are turning five next month. I’ve been wondering – since there’s two of them, does that mean I’ve aged a decade since they were born? In all seriousness, though, I need to lock down a birthday party concept before one of them has another go at persuading me to adapt to their proposed theme at the expense of the other’s.
I’d always kind of thought that twins would be into the same things. How wrong I was about that! Wilson wants a circus themed party but Loreena is afraid of stripes (go figure). Lorena, on the other hand, wants a karate party, which I’ll acknowledge has a great ring to it but is a bit on the niche side. As for me, I just want to get through the event without misplacing someone else’s kid (or one of mine, for that matter). Ideally, I’d like to take the gang of miniature lunatics somewhere they can run around without destroying my house, or each other, but which is also contained, safe and secure.
I don’t have too much in the way of expertise on this subject. Please, parents – tell me your ideas for kids party venues in Sydney. Is it too much to hope that there’s some kind of massive indoor playground with a good security system, staff that can help corral the kids and maybe even feed them, and a coffee shop on site? I suppose should probably stop asking questions to the void and just look this up myself.
A quick search reveals that there is, in fact such thing as an indoor play centre for kids, in Parramatta, Castle Hill, Penrith… wow, okay, there are a few to choose from. Who’d have thought that other parents would have been after a similar thing? Um, everyone. Because putting on kids parties – inviting other people’s kids into your home all at the same time to go nuts together – is scary. Looking after kids in general is scary. So it adds up to take them somewhere that’s custom designed for them to run amok while you have a hard-earned sit down.