Afternoon in Barking Park: Splash Park and Peddle Boats

There are some beautiful parks not too far from us (ValentinesPark being one of the best), but those that are nearer are unfortunately generally either a little grotty or feel slightly unsafe. Barking Park is one we have taken the kids to on a rare occasion, but doesn’t stand out as somewhere we would go to specially. Recently Fashionista Sister came to stay in London with her lovely little girl and suggested we take them all to the Splash Park in Barking Park. I had never heard of such a thing, so had to look it up and it looked fun. I happened to buy the girls UVA protection suits and aqua shoes recently (£3.99 and £2.99 from Lidl respectively) as we are going to Bournemouth soon insha’Allah, so these came in handy.

I sent the girls ahead to the Splash Park with their aunt and took the boys and their grandfather to check out the pedal boats on the boating lake which seem to be new. As with everything when you want to have a nice day out, they were a bit on the pricey side - £10 for 15 minutes. We let the boys pedal and dad-in-law and I chilled and slowly roasted in the glare of the hot sun. It was a very pleasant 15 minutes and it was nice to see the lake from a different perspective.

Afterwards I headed to the Splash Park feeling a little confused, you have to pay to go in (even if you are standing at the side to watch your kids) and you have to have swim wear to go near the water. Gorgeous brought his UV top and his swimming shorts, but Little Man decided he wasn’t interested (until we got there and he changed his mind). In addition, I could see into the Splash Park area and see lots of people sun bathing in bikini’s, I didn’t really think it was appropriate for either the boys or for their grandfather. I was still trying to work out what to do, when my sisters and sister-in-law exited with the troupe of wet little girls much to my relief.

The kids wanted ice cream and we wanted to get out of the sun, so we headed for the new café that has just opened in the park. This tuned out to be a lovely little treat – clean, a nice menu, friendly staff, space and toys for the little ones to play and…a book swap area! We ordered slushes and ice cream and chatted and browsed books just long enough for the sun to lose its edge a little and us to go home. Now I really, really, want somewhere to go and swap books.