Adult telling 12 year olds to leave playground

[Wrenbird27]

This happened to my friends daughter. She was with her friends and an older man (~65ish) approached them and told them they were too old to be in the playground. He demanded that they leave before they broke equipment 'with their weight'. He was very persistent and a few of the girls were upset.

The playground was very quiet at the time - just a few other kids.

None of the parents of the 12 year olds were close by - a few of the girls phoned their Mums who arrived quickly but he was gone by then. He didn't have a child himself which the girls noted and thought was odd.

My friend says her daughter won't go there anymore. I think this is a pity as it was a safe area (I thought!) for them to hang out. If there had been more children in the playground they would have moved to the side but the girls said nobody was waiting to go on equipment. The equipment is very sturdy - I've seen adults sitting on swings in there before!

What should they have done?

Idiot

When you haven't seen an incident for yourself you try to visualize it. What I see here is a group of children approaching their teens, not yet old enough to get summer jobs. Good kids but possibly becoming a little bored as the holidays draw to a close.Starting to flex their muscles, assert their independence, and attempting to impress each other. I see some horseplay here.I can hear the sort of verbal interaction that might shock their parents should they stroll by. Insouciance regarding their surroundings is the predominant vibe. Perhaps one or two members of the group being noticeably loud, challenging even? Also in this tableau are some younger children accompanied by their parents. This latter group is growing increasingly uncomfortable with the atmosphere, not anticipated when they decided to visit the playground. No physical danger suggested, just an inappropriate ambiance. One plucky individual takes the bull by the horns and approaches the youngsters. Given the vulnerability of males to random allegations I imagine his approach as civil, reasonable, diplomatic. Perhaps the group leader, (there's usually one) becomes mouthy and "clever".One word borrows another and before long Top Dog and his/her cohort are being advised that they are no longer welcome. Tale as old as time.

This.
At our local park my son was on the onstacle course and as he was going through the tunnel he says to me, mummy there’s a racist word in there. Can I tell you what it is please?
So I said yes.
He said, cunt!

I couldn’t not believe what I was hearing.
I informed my son that it’s not a racist word but just a horrible thing to say to someone or about someone although there are people who love it.

Oh, and last year he started drawing penises that he was seeing drawn over our park.

He has stopped doing both now thankfully

My 14 Yr old DD would die of embarrassment if I said I'm going to the park with her and her friends. (Don't worry DD just tagging along to supervise because you can't be trusted not to be a little shit).
I'm fairly certain she's not going to be climbing all over the toddler equipment and will probably be sitting with her mates, playing music on her phone, chatting crap, sitting on the grass in the sun), which she's allowed to do.
It also helps that our local park has separated areas (by age groups) so if I was to find out she was in a small children's area, she'd suffer the consequences (and no doubt someone would post it on the local FB group 🤔)