Flying Squirrel Trampoline Park — Attraction in Ottawa

We had one of the worst experiences in our family life. I give two starts because the manager who came to talk to us after was very professional.

We aren’t from Ottawa so I’m glad we are not going back. In my whole life as a parent of two children with special needs never ever saw such an incredible insensitive, rude, and loud reaction by a staff person that works at a children’s playground.

My non verbal, deaf and autistic 3yo wanted to play in an area that was NO designed for him. He didn’t meet the minimum high. However he keep insisted he wanted to play there and we keep getting him out of that area. It was 8.50, the center closed at 9. It was a Thursday ( so not a busy day) and he once again got closer to the stairs and try to play there, we the parents once again keep getting him out and he kept coming back. At the time I thought, they are closing in 5 mins, literally, maybe we can walk around there with him and that way he can feel like he saw it and go home in peace and avoid a total meltdown that lasts hours. I asked the employee if that was possible and I explained to him my son was deaf and with severe autism so he didn’t understood what we were trying to said to him. At the moment my son went again to the play area, at the time none else was at the center, just my family, the employee hear my request, said No, and ran towards my kid and grab him and talked to him to get him out of the zone because he didn’t meet the criteria. I was there, so was my husband. I asked him no to touch my son and not to talk to him because he was scaring him. To which the employee didn’t cared and started to scream at us because my son was there and he was not supposed, the employee ran and said I will get the manager, I said please get him because you can’t touch my son, and you are overreacting and also, I signed a waiver, you are in no way responsible for my son, I am, so you need to calm down and stop yelling at me.

All this interaction was being witnessed by my 8yo also autistic child who is verbal. She was super scared as well.

The manager came and tried to explained to me that my son didn’t follow the rules, which of course I agreed, but I explained he was unable to follow the rules due his disability and I was there to take him out and his employee simply freaked out on us and my son and refused to show any professionalism and more importantly refused to showed compassion for a 3yo child who only wanted to see the swing. All of this btw was a floor level. No dangerous whatsoever for anyone. At a place that was closing in literally 2 mins with no people.

Disabled children needs patiences, compassion, accommodations and understanding. This staff person showed zero of that to us. The opposite, my 8yo felt shamed for being autistic and didn’t understand why this adult person was yelling and grabbing his brother who can’t hear and yelling to his mom. She never ever want to go back there and she can’t even talk about the flying squirrel without crying. It’s the place where little brother got scared and yell out by an adult who couldn’t understand him and mommy got yelled out by him too.

This shouldn’t happen. If your response is to say, We don’t belong to this place because my son will get obsessed by playing he’s not allow to do, I believed you, we barely go to places that aren’t understanding of children with disabilities, but what I do asked them is to review how they talked to their clientele. How they dealt with conflict. How they deal with non compliance. How they talked to children that cannot talk nor hear. Because he 100 had an opportunity to show compassion, patience and understanding and even accommodate and accept. Instead he was disrespectful and, non understanding and...

The reviews of this place were so promising, but I wouldn't return with my kids mostly for safety reasons and they layout/organization of the place is not great. Check in is so long, even for people who purchase tickets online. I expected the place to be busy during Xmas holidays, but the bathrooms were so dirty (you need to wear socks, so it was a bit much how gross they were! Especially because you go in there and then back on the equipment). The food offered is pizza and junk, but you can't bring food in and there's only a few tables for how many people this place accommodates. My biggest issue is they don't have a safety system for people coming in and leaving. Most kid playgrounds that are SO MASSIVE have wristbands for adults, and an exit through 1 door where they just quickly check to make sure your kids and yours match up. Its such a simple system, and gives parents peace of mind. Anyone can walk in and out, there is no security system making sure adults with no children aren't in there wandering around and then kids and families aren't checked as they leave. I understand it's a parents responsibility to watch their children, but especially on the play structure side you cannot always see where your child is unless you follow them. I have a 3 year old who I followed at all times, but my 8 year old I couldn't see and there's no system for making sure kids don't leave these massive areas without a parent or even leave the premise. It's really strange, I have never seen anything like it before. It would be an easy thing to implement, and I can't say I'd return if they didn't do that. There were hundreds of people when we went so when it's so busy, it's just nice that a place that caters to kids and families would better moniter who is coming and going. I've never been to an indoor playpark that doesn't have that system. Are kids likely to be taken? No, this doesn't happen often and I'm not alarmist about it. But people who are predatory seek opportunities to do so, and this place absolutely offers that opportunity. Having parents sign a waiver that children are our responsibility is okay, if and when establishments also take care to ensure safety of the families and guests who are there. Especially if you have a neurodivergent, differently-able child! My nephew was supposed to come with us and he would LOVE IT. But he is non-verbal, level 3 ASD. He would be able to climb and enjoy the playback independently, and when caring for him I am on high-alert and vigilant. That being said, I would not take him somewhere that doesn't respect the risks of not having adults actually sign in with their children, wear wristbands or manage in small ways who is coming in and leaving. Its just a stupid risk Flying Squirrel is taking and I'm surprised I didn't see this in any of...

Did not enjoy my experience here! My son and I came on a Tuesday night when it wasn’t busy! We waited at the check-in desk while staff member after staff member was coming and going and we were not acknowledged..finally someone came out to us and helped us check-in. My son is two years old and was not enjoying the trampoline side and ran over to the adventure park side before I was able to catch up to him. I first off was surprised that he was able to just run ahead in there if that’s a separate area with different pricing! There was a bunch of staff members in that area and they were all just “hanging out” having a group chat and I asked them if he could play on this side since it wasn’t busy and he seemed to want to play there more than bounce on the trampolines, they told me I needed the wrist band for that side and now I needed the special socks and in fact I was supposed to already have the socks..this was the first I heard of this since the person at check-in said nothing about the special socks..we had our own personal socks on so I didn’t know this was a thing. My son was already up playing in the structure so I went back to the desk to see about getting the wrist band for that side, and then that person who again took awhile to get off her chair from the back room to come out said bring the child here and I’ll change the wrist band. Trying to get a toddler to come out of a play area was very difficult so I just took his wrist band off and came back out with it. This time it was a different person that spoke with us and then had to look up our reservation…and then was like oh now you have to pay the extra rate..I didn’t have my wallet on me as we had reserved online, and was told that well we had to pay, so no wrist band, although the previous staff member was willing just to switch the wrist bands no problem. I went back to the adventure park side and after some time finally got my child to come down from the structure, and we left. We were there a total of 40 minutes. Maybe I should have read up a little more on the place before coming and understood what the trampoline side entailed and what the adventure park side was about, but I didn’t and I think the staff could have done a better job at making the...