Dad ogling pg 3 girls in playground

[anotherglass]

Strolled into school this morning with DS1 (6) to find a dad "reading" pg 3 of the Sun ( norks were in full view of the Year 2 line up ).

I thought this a tad inappropriate and asked him to turn the page, but he was really put out and huffed and puffed at me.

Tell me I was not being unreasonable.

I would raise inward eyebrows - but wouldn't actually tackle him over it. Not because I am cowardly, but because that would be OTT

I wouldn't wait for anyone to bring more porn into the playground tbh, I'd go and speak to the headteacher right now. You don't want yobbos bringing porn into a kid's playground, anymore than you wnat them smoking in there. And anyone who thinks it's appropriate and acceptable to expose children to soft porn, probably needs to have the message that it's not, backed up by the headteacher.

"The dad must have been receiving some sexual gratification from the picture"

Or was reading page 2/the accompanying story on page 3. Or was trying to avoid eye contact with the people around him because he finds them intimidating so found a nice smiling face to look at instead. Or had read the content of the speech bubble and was wondering why a regular human being could say something so inane.

But anotherglass, the adult environment you envisage for the perusal of page 3 in truth is homes up and down the land.

Not mine, I don't buy it. But lots of families with kids do. Their choice. The man has a right to look at a legal paper in the playground and was right to be put out. Perhaps he is sick of being told what he can and cannot do thanks to an over legislating government. I know I am. Your job is not to police the playground or what is suitable reading material for others children. You could have distracted your own child if you were worried.

I am not saying it's not bad manners of the man looking at it, but it is not your job or your right, in my opinion, to ask him to close the page.

That's all.

I once asked for newspapers for class when I was a probationer and in Y6.
Never again. Not even if we were creating an elephant sculpture and required several thousand copies, I'd prefer to source them myself.

And please understand, if the head teacher were to ask parents not to bring in tabloid newspapers to the playground, I would have no problem respecting that. They are rubbish anyway, but even if i read them, i would respect the school rules. I smoke but would never smoke near the school or other people's kids. I do believe in good manners.

Lots of people swear in front of/at their children too.

If a dad was saying "For fucks sake" on the playground, it would be the same level of inappropriateness, IMO.

If I accidentally swore in the playground and another parent called me on it, I would be very apologetic and think they had a perfect right to be annoyed.

Re the distraction argument, it's all very well to say 'you could distract your child' but what if the child saw it before you did?

Why not go for a bit of peer pressure, half a dozen people asking him to put it away would be fairly unambiguous to the dimmest Sun reader.

perfumedlife, I don't want to rehash previous arguments about this, other than to add I felt uncomfortable with the situation. Sitting in the playground looking at a picture of a bare breasted woman is creepy IMO. Plenty of women feel this way about men viewing porn - soft or hard - in public places on buses or the tube. I take issue with your view that I should not have done anything other than look the other way.

My questions to those who think the OP is BU would be:

1. how hard does the porn have to be before this becomes unacceptable?

1. how blatant does the ogling behaviour have to be before it becomes unacceptable?

eg is 'looks at the tits on this' (spoken to another bloke but loudly enough for kids to hear) ok in a playground?

would a copy of Nuts be ok? What about the softer end of 'proper' porn, specially if they're only reading the letters page?

i dont like p3,but dislike crusading nebs even more.outrageous

Well I reckon you have the right to ASK for someone to stop doing something that you think is inappropriate. You don't get a guarantee they'll say yes, but asking is not offensive FGS.

"man has a right to look at a legal paper in the playground and was right to be put out"

No, he doesn't.

Any more than he has a right to swear or smoke, or bring an unrestrained dog into a school playground.

It is legal to swear, smoke and let your dog off a lead. It is inappropriate to do it in a school playground, the domain of children. FFS if we can't keep our kids away from adult stuff like smoking, drugs and porn in a school, where the fuck can we?

1. Cocks and fannys
2. I think you need to define your ogling scale a bit more before I can answer.

sethstarkaddersmum, in answer to the first of your questions; every single person will have a different idea of when porn becomes inappropriate, and what actually constitutes porn.

YANBU inappropriate in a school yard.

Its the location it happened in not the action, it is irrelevant whether he was or wasn't looking at the norks. Why are topless magazines kept on the top shelf if not to be out of view for young children, why is this any different?

Well said HerBeatitude. Another crusader for common sense!

It's obviously struck a lot of nerves with people whose DC have to wade through old pg 3s to get across the room at home

i see anti femminist put down wheeled out.kerching! socialsciencetastic cliché abound.as does implication anyone not agreeing with this is letting da sistas down

Lynette - I know everyone has a different idea, that's why I'm asking people on this thread where they draw the line