More and more, we can see ourselves turn to the internet for inspiration. If junior gets a nasty rash on his cheek, we immediately google for allergies and we can be quickly informed or, in some cases panicked - A little information isn’t always a good thing.

One of the areas which has been great for me is the concept of “lifehacking”. The big name in this is, obviously, lifehacker.com but there are blogs out there which deal with parenting related tips.

Parent Hacks would be one that I regularly subscribe* to. Some of the ideas are better than others but the real strength is the variety. It has some neat ideas every day especially for rainy days or how to prepare for a trip. As a Dad, I’ve found it invaluable.

A lot more ‘commercial’, in my opinion, is Clever Parents. It’s not a negative thing but while Parent Hacks is written by the end users, Clever Parents is definitely the work of columnists which removes it a layer from reality.

Both of them update regularly and offer RSS feeds which will deliver their articles right to your computer. If you’re not sure how to use an RSS feed, then pop a line in the comments!

Play Café (Google Maps Link) is one of the newer indoor play areas in the province catering for all ages of younger kids. The toddler area is quote good and most importantly for me, visibility is probably better here than in most. It can be a bit busy but some of the highlights of the place include that it’s only £4.50 for allegedly unlimited time (I’d like to test that someday) and its open from 10am-7pm Mon-Sat and Sun 1pm-6pm.

The café part does hot and cold food and there are separate party rooms as well. There are dodgems there as well though we didn’t try them out. There weren’t a lot of staff to be seen, to be honest, but then the visibility kind of made up for that.

Parking is a little haphazard and it does feel a little cramped when trying to move between some of the tables but it’s a nice enough place.

WOW Overview

Cost per child: £4.50

The kids loved it, right from the tiny toddler to the wise-beyond-his-years 7 year old. I was a little more reserved because of the parking and also because it ‘felt’ cramped. After the party crowds dispersed into their party rooms, it was a lot more comfortable.