We needn’t have been worried. The location was enclosed, the kids were well supervised (ratio: 2 staff with 8 kids), the staff were diligent and in control. When we arrived there were 5 other kids there, including some her age that we had already met many times over at the pool, whom we knew by name.

The club had a time limit of 1 hour, but when I came back to retrieve our 5yo daughter, the older kids were lying on mats with pillows, lights dimmed, watching a quiet Disney movie as the younger ones partook of a mid-afternoon siesta. They actually shooed me away and said to go enjoy the alone time, and come back after the movie was over.

I love my children. But sending them away for just one hour – is wonderful! We used the service every day from then on, for a while each afternoon. She kept asking to go back!

There was an unfortunate incident when our daughter pushed one of the heavy steel baby swings (with no one in it), and when it swung back it struck her square in the face. She had a giant swollen black eye, and to my dismay when I returned to pick her up there she was, crying, and I found that the staff there had no First Aid supplies – not even any ice! Their response to the quickly-growing black bump below her eye was to sit with her saying “aw… there there… it’s OK”. They didn’t even ice it!

Luckily we always travel with Witch Hazel distillate in our emergency bag, and it took about a minute to run to the beach bar to get some ice. Applying a compress of witch hazel took the swelling down quickly. She had a wicked black shiner on her eye which lasted a few weeks, and a small hard bump on her cheekbone which took another month to dissipate.

All in all the Kids Club was a very worthwhile service, though I’m still wary of the idea of leaving my children with strangers. I guess it’s the sort of thing where you have to go and check it out and get a feel for whether you are comfortable with their security, care, competence… oh, and before you leave check if they have a 1st aid kit and know how to use it.