If you are really lucky there will be signs on each of these areas, one declaring 'FOR CHILDREN UNDER 3 ONLY' and the other insisting 'NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN UNDER 4' leaving you clutching your 3 year old's hand and scratching your head.
This week I went to what I think might be the 'Coolest Play Center Ever':
The Imaginarium Project in Geelong, Victoria might not strictly be a play center, but it sure is a great alternative. It is literally a mini-world of imagination, color and wonder:
Face-painting in the Alice in Wonderland garden
Underwater themed room
Pirate room
There was also a 'down the rabbit hole area, a western room, a glow-in-the-dark room with a haunted house and a room covered in chalkboard paint where you could draw on the walls and the chalk glowed.
Best part is the cafe with hidden coffee nooks throughout the center as well:
The price was good at $5 per head for the kids (adults free) but might get a bit costly for the older ones (4-12 years $12 each). You might also have some reservations around the appropriateness of some of the guns, swords and skulls in the pirate and western rooms but the kids LOVED it.
Maybe not the coolest place 'ever but it was certainly a welcome change to your run of the mill center.