Playground Etiquette?

annieee

Just wondering what you would have done in this situation?

I was at the playground yesterday with my little fella, he's 19 months. He wanted to go into a little wooden house they have there but there was a bigger child in there who started pushing him and telling him to get out. The bigger child's mother was close by, chatting to a friend and she saw what happened, told her son not to push and continued her chat.

At this stage I decided to get into the house with the two boys, to stop any arguments and we had fun for a while. The bigger boy seemed to calm down a bit. Then he left and my child went to sit on the seat that had been vacated and the big fella came back and started screaming and pushing my fella around again. I told him not to push but his Mother was very close and I didn't want to tell him off too much. Whats the deal here? Am I entitled to tell him to stop?

Anyways, I decided to take my lad out of the house altogether and brought him to the see saw but the bigger child followed us and wouldn't let my fella sit on it! I'd had enough of the little brat at this stage and told him he was very bold, grabbed my fella and brought him to the car, all the while saying loudly 'He's a very bold boy to push you like that, someone should keep and eye on him'

The mother finally copped on to what had happened and hopefully was suitably mortified. Hopefully the little brat ('Jethro - I kid you not!) got a dressing down.

What should I have done? I'm new to all this stuff, first time mum.

Lurvely

Its very hard to know what to do, you dont want your little one getting bullied, which is what that was. If it was me i think i would have approached the other boys mother & said to her that her boy was pushing yours around, even if she did already know. She might have been really embarrassed then & might have stopped him doing it. She should have stopped him in the first place when she seen him doingit to be honest, i wouldnt let my child do that to anybody elses child.

silverharp

hasn't happened often, but on the few occasions, firstly a jovial remark not to do it again, if that doesn't work then harder stare and firmer voice. To be honest it only happens when the parents are distracted, if they see what is happening they normally step in. but as a dad have no qualms stepping in if the other kid is bigger and would make sure that the other kid backs down. I remember one instance where a little madam aged about 6 in the zoo in stillorgan was getting her 3 yr old brother to throw balls at my lad who was 3 as well, no parent about so basically stared the girl out until she left the play area,

Quality

I usually just remove my son from any situations like this, I will distract his attention to something else and when the original plaything is free I will then bring him over to it.

littlebug

That drives me nuts and it's even worse when the parent pays no attention at all when told how their kid is behaving. I've twice had to alert a parent to their childs behaviour. The first time was in a playground and two bigger girls (8-9 I'd say) were blocking the little ones from going up on the slide and paid no heed when other parents asked them to move aside. The mother was suitably embarrassed and promptly took them and left the playground (they in tears so a lesson was learned perhaps).
The second time was in one of those play centre places. A boy of about 6 was pushing smaller kids from the top of the slide and my 3 year old tumbled head over heels all the way down after getting a shove. When the other boy came down I told him he shouldn't push smaller kids and when he just stuck his tongue out at me I marched him over to his mother who gave him a bit of a scolding but 5 minutes later he was punching my daughter and her friend in the back. His mother saw this time and he got another mild scolding but he was back in there playing in about 2 minutes... ie he got away with it. If either of my children picked on or hurt another child By God there would be marched out of there straight off and there would be no second chances:mad:. They would NOT do it again.

Anyway in response to the OP i think it's perfectly acceptable to inform the mother if their child and I would hope someone would if mine were.

SarahMc

I think you handled it just right.

First you observed

Then you intervened

Then you challenged

Then you removed you child from the situation, told him it was not his fault, and the other guy was a bully.

Frankly, I would not have challenged the other parent, chances are apples don't fall far from the tree, and she would not have gained anything from the challenge except a "who did she think she was' story, and you would have been even more angry!