What to Look for in a Kid-Friendly Cafe

I have been to a lot of kid cafes and here is what I have found to make a big difference in the great, good, and not so good places I have visited.

Toys!
Okay, this is probably a given but toys are great thing to have in a cafe that is kid friendly!! Some cafes though will have a small basket of toys, and literally think that it makes them kid friendly. This is not the case because the places that I have been to that do this tend to NOT WASH the toys which is a problem, especially when you consider they are often selling food at these places meaning little hands are touching these toys and then eating or vice versa. I have also seen the extreme opposite, where a cafe actually has about half of the establishment as a play area FILLED with toys...kids throw, eat, and climb on the stuff and it is kind of scary! Now I know that some parents are totally comfortable with this because they have a basement play room that is the same description but I can't even fathom how they keep it all clean. Some places will ask parents to help.

Cleaning Station!
When parents are asked to help, I think it is a great effort, though I do not know how well it works. Usually this consists of a small tub of bleached water on a counter with a towel or two to wipe off toys after dunking them in the mixture, but we don't really know what is in the bucket...and especially considering recent controversy about the antibacterial ingredients in cleaning products, do we really want to risk that as opposed to sharing a few germs? Personally I wish they would do something like this and use vinegar or maybe to give it a more natural clean, problem is that it might not smell so good.

Train Tables!
I think Barnes and Noble started this as an essential part of a kids area anywhere, I loved the feeling of familiarity when the store I frequented in New Jersey had the same look and feel as the one I later went to a lot in Seattle. Now these are seen just about everywhere! Kids seem to be entranced by these and I do think they are a great thing for a place to have, I do wonder again about the cleaning, but the toys seem to be what the children touch and play with the most and they seem to be lost and replaced pretty frequently (perhaps a business reason to not have one?) and I like to think this keeps the worst germs away.

WIFI!
As a mom who does things like writes these articles, manages online communities and creates websites this is an essential part of any cafe or coffee shop that I frequent unless I'm going out to visit a friend I haven't seen for a very long time and we have a lot to talk about. For a kid cafe though, a mom who is working needs to be able to sit with her computer plugged in close enough to the play area that she can at least peripherally keep track of her kiddos. Some places have very few places for adults to sit near the area leading to a bunch of adults standing awkwardly around watching the kids which isn't very fun. Others are so integrated that the proximity of the kids to the wires is a bit scary, and also if it is in the middle of a kid/parent area kids can of course go behind the parent and get hurt or cause trouble there, so that isn't much good. I think the best place I've seen in this respect had the play area in a corner, with a very low wall, and tables all around the wall with a couple of columns that had plugs on them.

Parking!
I love walking around my neighborhood, there are a lot of very cool cafes but none of them are kid friendly, and my experiences in other parts of the country have been the same, typically to get to a kid cafe I need to drive, and with kids, this means I need to be able to park close as I do not wish to carry two kids a mile along with all of my things so that they can play with a couple of toys. For a big park expedition I don't mind walking as it is a part of what we're doing, but if I'm doing business or trying to just wake up with a cup of coffee I'd rather not!

Food!
Kids eat, just about wherever they go. This makes sense because they are growing at an amazing rate. If a place has some good and healthy snacks this is a great comfort because so many coffee shops are only selling things like pastries of which I'm allergic to and prefer not to sugar load my kids with. Fresh fruits and snacks are great, Veggie Booty in small bags is always a hit, fruit leathers, those new fruit puree packs, and other healthy treats with some classics like soup and rolls are great. Coffee and some kind of caffeine free drinks for mom are very important too.

Have fun finding the perfect place for you and your little ones!! There are simultaneously a lot of options and yet not enough I find. Having good friends to visit is preferred in my opinion but it is nice to have places like this available to frequent sometimes too!

Have fun!

Resources:
http://www.nrdc.org/media/2010/100727.asp
http://twomomsintheraw.com/
http://www.peterrabbitorganics.com/home