The Hang Out Venue Ltd

Open til 5pm for walk-ins. We'd truly love to see you.❤️💯✨️✨️✨️✨️

This weekends hanging out 👇💜🧡✨️✨️

Reminder - walk-ins this weekend are Sat 12 - 18 & Sun 13.30 - 17.00. We have Parents Voice community group Sat 10 - 12💜 & a birthday party Sun 11 - 13.00.🧡 Look forward to seeing you all. 💜✨✨✨

💯💯💯💯❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ ADORE finding these little messages 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

We're open allllll day for super relaxed cosy hanging out and family play, for all ages.
🌧☕️🦖🎲♟️♣️🎨💯✨️✨️✨️

Walk-ins welcome or book online
www.thehangoutvenue.co.uk
62 London Rd, Southend, SS1 1PG

QUESTION FOR YOU ALL - Our starting reception meet ups include schools which are within a 2 mile radius from The Hang Out. We've updated to include Westborough (apols we missed initially).

Question is, do families want other infant schools to be included? if we go wider, then it could include a lot more, and other soft plays and businesses often do local meet ups too.

We have quite a few families from Darlinghurst and a few others, but that's heading towards Leigh, and more than 2 miles.

We'd love to know your thoughts💜

Personal update ❤️ Last week I received both my autism and ADHD diagnosis, and my medication for ADHD. 💯🙏 ✨️✨️✨️✨️

Sooooooo many questions answered and I'm making sense of my past, whilst appreciating I wouldn't be who I am, where I am or where I've been without either, and believe me, I've a life well lived. 💯❤️

I'm thankful my brain already is calmer. It was EXHAUSTING having so MANY thoughts, at such SPEED. It was a CONSTANT chatter and a need to move and do something, whilst craving the calm and routine.🥺

One gives me the amazing ability to get things done, the other gives me extra strength. Now I find the BALANCE. ✨️✨️

Harnessing when my autism gently pulls me back a little, and welcoming my ADHD when it gives me the nudge to give things a shot. ✨️✨️ I'll certainly be more compassionate and patient with myself.

Thank you for all the chats and conversations. I probably wouldn't have got my diagnosis if I hadn't launched The Hang Out Venue Ltd. A lot of us that hangout are neurospicy.❤️

If I've got this far without diagnosis, imagine what possible harnessing the best of both. I'm genuinely excited for the future.🙏🙏

I'll be 50 in November, and I know my next 50 will be the best yet.


Apologies for any typos ✌️

Reminder today we have a private booking 11 -1pm.💜 Walkins welcome 9 - 11 then 1 - 6pm🧡

This is ABSOLUTELY why we are for all ages. Our community and family (with kids of all ages). Need relaxed spaces to hangout together. Play doesn't stop at a certain age.💯

Not everyone has a village. Community and connection. Compassion starts with commonality. Our young people are desperate to belong, not be segregated and cast aside, at a time when they are working their way in the world. ✨️✨️✨️✨️

We don't stop playing because we get old. We get old, because we stop playing.❤️ 💯💯💯💯

When Are You Too Old to Play?

A few years ago, we visited one of our favourite interactive science spaces with friends. It’s a brilliant place for children, packed with hands-on activities, imagination, and exploration.

One of the highlights for our lovelies was always the building exhibit: big rubber bricks, hard hats, high-vis jackets, clipboards, wheelbarrows, and even a mock house. It’s perfect for imaginative role play and collaborative construction.

Our children loved it.

Every single time we went, they headed straight there and spent a huge chunk of time immersed, designing, building, and playing as a team. It’s proper play. Engaged, cooperative, creative.

But here’s the thing.

At the time, our group included children aged 11, 10, 10, and 5. According to the sign posted outside the exhibit, three of them were technically ‘too old’ to be there.

Now, I’m usually someone who follows the rules. But that day, I stood back for a moment before calling them out and I watched. What I saw was not wild or disruptive behaviour. I saw children deeply involved in meaningful, joyful play. So I let them stay.

To the credit of the staff, they didn’t ask them to leave. I like to think it’s because they could see the children were fully engaged, respectful, and interacting with the exhibit exactly as it was intended, just with a few more years under their belts.

But it made me reflect: why do we place such rigid age limits on play?

It’s not the only time we’ve had this kind of experience. I’ve also had my children asked to leave an outdoor play area for being ‘too old’, even though they were playing kindly, respectfully, and imaginatively, just like everyone else there. Ironically, the people who asked them to leave were teachers. Educators who, in theory, understand child development and the deep importance of play.

Because play isn’t just for toddlers or young children. It doesn’t suddenly become irrelevant when a child turns 8 or 10 or 12. In fact, older children arguably need more space to play freely, especially in a world where academic pressures increase and opportunities for unstructured time are shrinking.

And I wonder whether we sometimes misunderstand the purpose of age recommendations.

While some are there for safety reasons, others often coincide with a point in development where children are physically strong enough, cognitively ready enough, or emotionally mature enough to gain a deeper understanding from an activity.

The same equipment can offer something entirely different to an 11-year-old than it did at 5. Greater problem-solving, more sophisticated collaboration, richer imaginative play.

At the same time, I get it. As a parent of younger children too, I know it can be frustrating or even unsafe when older children are playing in a space meant for little ones. But does the answer have to be blanket age cut-offs? Or is there room for flexibility, observation, and understanding of individual behaviour?

What do you think?

Should we be more open to mixed-age play, especially when it’s clearly respectful and imaginative? Or are the cut-offs there for a reason?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. This is something we’ve wrestled with more than once, and I know we’re not the only ones.

Emma
The Autistic SENCo
♾️

💥 Our community wall welcomes posters for local events, groups and services. Pop one in if you are passing.✨️✨️62 London Rd, Southend, SS1 1PG