2 days ago
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A woman was left regretting her choice of attire for a visit to a soft play area with her infant son after a trip down the slide took a dramatic turn.
From ball pits to jungle gyms with climbing frames and toddler play panels thrown in for good measure, there's usually much to entertain and engage a young child at the average soft play. Trips to play areas of this kind offer children a change of scenery and, as research has shown, an opportunity at further enrichment and development.
In 2017, a study published in the journal Psychological and Cognitive Sciences concluded that this type of sensory-rich play supports cognitive development, enhancing brain function and neural connections in the process.
Annabelle Hicks and her son, Noah, are certainly keen advocates of soft play dates and they are especially keen on the Amazon Adventure soft play located at Drusillas Park in Sussex in the U.K. "It's one of our favourite places," Hicks told Newsweek. "Noah loves the soft play there."
Despite loving every second of their time there together, Hicks might think twice about her choice of outfit for the trip after falling victim to a hilarious mishap while going down the slide at the facility with her son.
"I was wearing tights and didn't think anything of it, we'd been down the slide so many times," she said. This time was different though as the video she subsequently posted to TikTok, under the handle ThisMumEra, shows.
"This time going down, we went so fast and even had air time on each bump of the slide which ended up with me screaming my head off more than any kid in there," she said.
Their descent was captured in hilarious slow-motion detail in the resulting TikTok video with Hicks appearing terrified throughout and Noah catching some serious air as they went down.
The footage had people watching on social media in hysterics. "The baby just flying through the air with you," one said. "My man transported to a different stratosphere for a second," a second said.
Others struck a more sympathetic tone. "We've all been there," one viewer commented with another writing: "I wore jeans on one and physically flew off the slide about 3/4 the way down."
Though Hicks was left a tiny bit shaken by her speedy slide down, the good news is that the experience didn't leave her son upset at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.
"Noah surprisingly wanted to go down there again after," Hicks said, adding that, while she declined to go with him, there was another adult ready and waiting to pick up the slack.
"I made sure he went down with his dad instead," she said.
