On June 9 my 2 year old son and 7 seven year old daughter proceeded to go to the Pop in Playtime located at the Pump It Up in Glen Burnie around 9:30 am. When we arrived the sign on the door indicated it was closed. The time for Pop In Playtime supposed to start at 9:15 am according to the website, answering machine and the staff.
I proceeded to walk by the door to see if it was closed when a staff person saw me and turned the sign around that indicated that they were open. Once I realized this my children and I entered the facility, signed a mandatory waiver for my children and paid for the playtime. I was expecting for my children to view the mandatory video about how to play at Pump It Up and what you can and can not do but she just ushered us inside to play.
After about 30 minutes of playtime, other groups were coming in to join the kids playing. I noticed that the older kids that looked around 13 or 15 years old were very aggressive with the younger children causing them to tumble or fall. One of the older children hit my son on the head while jumping wildly while jumping in the inflated jumper. The child nor the parent apologized but the older children kept terrorizing the other children. I then told my children (who were very scared)
to exit that and get on something else.
As I saw 2 staff people who were talking and giggling with the parents who were not corrected their children, I managed to express my concerns. To my dismay she was very relaxed and stated that with older children its the parents who should watch them and they do not and then shrugged her shoulders. While this was going on, a few children were doing some dangerous things on the inflatable slides that was discussed in the video for Pump It Up of things you were not allowed to do.
I finally became frustrated after watching the children not follow the rules, spitting on the equipment and running over the little children; I asked for the manager. I was shocked to learn that the same person I was confronting indicated that she was the manager. She had no name tag on or no tag on indicated that she was the manager of Pump It Up.
After staying there and closely monitoring my children, I overheard her tell the other parents to not allow the rest of the children to play with my kids. I was appalled and despite her mean tactics, we stayed anyway and had a good time.
I was in complete disbelief that a company that prides itself in following the rules with a video and signed waiver form would allow such antics to go on in the facility. I also noticed that the manager, Stephanie Serrin was interacting with the other children very playfully as though she knew them on a personal level. Half of the children were not wearing socks, which is a requirement according to the facilities rules and regulations. She asked one child in front of me and when the child responded she did not have any, she just shrugged and said "okay".
I have lost all sense of respect for this facility and will continue to tell people about how this facility preaches good and fair practices about well mannered and behave children but do not enforce these rules.
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