Just Kidding Playground (Forest Ave)

About

Reviewers keep coming back to the music. Loud, not always children's music, and pitched high enough that one father says his kids leave wound up rather than worn out; another parent, otherwise complimentary, found that the noise on top of the color and a full room tipped over into overstimulating.

Set against that, this is the location parents of anxious and autistic children keep choosing, and the reason they give is the size. You can sit in one spot and see the whole room. The draw is pretend play rather than a big climber — a mock supermarket, a dress-up station, projectors, a pebble pit next to the ball pit — which is why it reads younger than the south shore site.

Parties are where it clearly wins, because this is the one that will close a room off for you. The write-ups are unusually detailed: food plated before the children sit down, the room stripped and reset between the meal and the cake, leftovers boxed and gifts carried out to the car. Best fit is walking toddlers to about six.