Children enjoy the playground at Sein Gay Har Super Centre on Pyay Road in Yangon.

IT’S never a pretty sight to see a single mother struggling with an obstreperous youngster hell-bent on turning a normal shopping trip into a nightmare but the good news is that there are ways to avoid this.

In fact there are several shopping centres in Yangon that have places where children can do what they do best – make plenty of noise and play.

Ma Khin Myat Mon, a supervisor at Super One Shopping Centre, said the facility can be fun for children of all ages.

“We have two different play areas: One is for those five years and younger and the other is for those five and older,” she said.

The under-five playground features a large bouncy castle equipped with an inflated slide so the little tykes can bounce around without risking any injury.
For children five and above there is a more elaborate playground with a slippery slide, a trampoline and a room filled with plastic balls with a basketball hoop to aim for.

For parents who bring more than one child along the facility is free. It is also free on holidays and special days. Normal charges are K100 for half an hour at the facility – a small price to pay to avoid those humiliating public tantrums.

“There are also computer games and network games for hire at K100 for computer games, and K200 for network games,” she added.

Ma Khin Myat Mon said Super One is planning to enlarge their playground in the near future too.

Sein Gay Har shopping mall also provides entertainment for the younger and most lively members of families who frequently dislike shopping. The centre charges the same fees as Super One for their facility, which opened in 2004, and company management said a playground was always part of the overall design.

Other centres, like Ocean Super Centre, offer a few special items to entertain children while the parents shop.

Ko Zaw Gyi and Ma Sandar, parents of one-and-half-year-old twins, said they like to go to Ocean Super Centre because there are shopping trolleys shaped like cars that the children like to ride in.

“My two sons like the trolley and we prefer to go there because we feel safer knowing that the children are with us while we shop,” Ma Sandar said.
But more important for her is the location of the centre.

“We know that Sein Gay Har has more options for children to amuse themselves with but we live in North Dagon township, which is quite far away. So we choose Ocean instead,” she added.

For April, who is in the ninth standard at school, the Sein Gay Har shopping mall is her favourite destination when she’s out shopping with her family.

“I live in Kamaryut and whenever my aunt goes shopping, I try to accompany her. It’s great because while she is shopping, I play computer games,” she said.