Trying to "emphasize normal" with a bunch of children reminds me of this book-quote:

> "It's simply a matter of correct emphasis. For example, a typical downsider history of, say, the settlement of Orient IV usually gives about fifteen pages to the year of the Brothers' War--a temporary if bizarre social aberration--and about two to the actual hundred or so years of settlement and building-up of the planet. Our text gives one paragraph to the war. But the building of the Witgow trans-trench monorail tunnel, with its subsequent beneficial economic effects to both sides, gets five pages."

> "In short, we emphasize the common instead of the rare, building rather than destruction, the normal at the expense of the abnormal. So that the quaddies may never get the idea that the abnormal is somehow expected of them."

> [...] The degree of censorship imposed upon the quaddies implied by Yei's brief description made his skin crawl--and yet, the idea of a text that devoted whole sections to great engineering works made him want to stand up and cheer.

(Falling Free, by Lois McMaster Bujold.)

I went to Ciudad de los Niños when I was ten and had a blast. What I remember most is how committed they are to the different "jobs" you can play. As doctors, you and your friends pile into the back of a van-sized ambulance and get driven to the site of an "accident" (a kid lying spreadeagle near the go-kart track). You lift him into the vanbulance, drive him back to the hospital, and then "revive" him with prop defibrillator. There's a counselor there to guide the experience, but he plays the part a panicky nurse who desperately needs your help to save this kid's life.

The tiny buildings and costumes set the mood, but it's really the people who make this park possible.

Reminds me of The Game of Life game (the Milton Bradley version—not the Conway one). That was one of my wife's favorite games growing up, so we got it as wedding present. When we tried to play it once, I found it even more boring than I expected for a kids' game: The prospect of buying a house, getting insurance, etc. is incredibly mundane when you already have the real-life versions.

Our kids aren't quite old enough to play it yet, but I've been trying to figure out how to hide it from them. Not only is it unimaginative, winning is defined as acquiring certain possessions and building a perfect 1950's-style American family. Not that there's anything wrong with that in real life (my own family fits the stereotype), but there are plenty of other ways to "win" at real life.

There's certainly a lot of discussion and even some controversy on whether KidZania is a good or bad thing. But one thing is certain: it's insanely fun for kids.

Jeffrey Friedl (author of Mastering Regular Expressions) has some KidZania entries on his blog from a few years ago.

http://regex.info/blog/2009-06-28/1245

http://regex.info/blog/category/japan/kidzania

I took my kids to the two KidZania parks in Mexico City when they were younger. They still talk about it frequently. Basically it is like a little city. Kids can be firemen, doctors, painters, vets, walmark checkout clerks, etc. I highly recommend it. It was way more interesting than Disney. Check out the video on http://www.kidzania.com to get a better idea.

Sounds like a south Florida venture, named Wannado City, that didn't make it. http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2010/11/where-w...

The American equivalent would be a modern children's museum, with slightly less of the STEM educational exhibits and more of the roleplaying areas.

The one my kids love the most (the Kohl in Glenview, IL) has a play veterinarian's office, day care center, Safeway supermarket, and a miniature Potbelly Sandwich shop:

http://imgur.com/kz39sMZ

We had something called 'MiniMünchen' here in Munich, Germany when I was a kid - was more like a longer event with children manning boothes, a special currency and stuff

Hard to find English material, but http://www.mini-muenchen.info/index.php?article_id=34 doesn't look too bad.

> Whereas Disney’s Magic Kingdom parks promise fantasy and wish fulfillment, KidZania is a proudly mundane municipality

For children that's the same.

I've seen a couple of examples of this throughout the U.S., but on a much smaller scale. I'd always wanted to do something like this as a kid, but never really got the chance to. Whatever the case, it's pretty cool that it's caught on worldwide.

I personally think this sort of park is a good thing. Making the real world fun? I'm all for that. I'd imagine it's also a good way to encourage children to figure out what they'd really want to be when they grow up by letting them explore what those jobs are like.

In my city there's a "mini-City" week during the hollidays where kids (about 20 or so) get to be adults for the week and pick their occupation. They even have their own currency. I've volunteered for it once the kids enjoy it a lot.

That's weirdly appropriate in a society where adults pretend to be children and use words like "poop" regularly.

Do they have to get a loan approved by Mrs. Griswold?