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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think people should take responsibility for themselves and their children

26 replies

Crystyclear · 18/03/2011 12:53

It's not the elf and safety that's gone mad, it's bloody people!

At 0-5s parent and child group and everyone sits in a circle at the end for quick catch up from the children's centre staff etc. the final notice is:

" When everyone is having tea/coffee, please can you drink it in the (absurdly tiny) kitchen (away from your children) instead of in the main hall (even though there are tables and high places to rest your drink) "JUST IN CASE" one you accidentally spills in on someone else's child or parent and then sues the children's centre...

[sceptical]

in what world would someone have to be that money grabbing and legally obsessed to try and sue a children's centre for a mistake made by a parent using its services against another parent (or child)?

or, (as I suspect) is yet another person deciding that it's "better to be safe than sorry" and adopting possibly the most ill thought through and more irresponsible solution to a non-problem, that would have no legal or insurance basis in event of an accident anyway.

Who is telling people they need to make up these rules, or worse, why are we so quick to make them up ourselves, even when they don't or can't be legally applied?

Why is the presumption that everyone is reckless and irresponsible, or that everyone wants to sue everyone else?

Shouldn't it be the case that unless it is an activity or venue that has obvious risks i.e a coal mine or abseiling, that we all need to grow up and accept that people will try to make the activity or the venue fit for purpose, rather than apply health and safety notices to cups of coffee?

When I run a coffee morning, I'm just going to stick a sign up...

"by entering these premises, you agree to take responsibility for yourself and your children. Enter at your own risk."

As disclaimers go... that sounds a little more like it.

or AIBU?

OP posts:
WinterOfOurDiscountTents · 18/03/2011 13:03

seems like a lot of people have no sense of risk perception at all, you only have to look on MN to see that.

ashamedandconfused · 18/03/2011 13:45

OP - when you run your coffee morning dont forget to label the coffee with "warning this drink is hot", will you?

PLENTY of people have NO common sense at all thesedays and PLENTY try to get money out of any unfortunate situation they can - i know a woman who claimed for whip lash in a very very minor car bump and used the £2 k she got for a boob job! companies and voluntary organisations are scared to death of being sued thats why we have warnings like "do not use this iron to iron clothes while you are wearing them" and other ridiculousness

oh and winter of our discount tents, i have been LOL at your name for several days - it is my current favourite! are you newish or is that recent namechange? (dont out yourself if you dont want to)

Desperateforthinnerthighs · 18/03/2011 13:46

YANBU - the world has gone mad!

ddubsgirl · 18/03/2011 13:51

wasnt it a woman who sued macds in the usa when she dropped her coffee and it burnt her so now the cups have a warning on them!so stupid,same with a pack of nutswarning may contain nuts` well duh!

coccyx · 18/03/2011 14:04

Have to say i do think someone would try and sue

Mumwithadragontattoo · 18/03/2011 14:08

If your child was badly scalded and you needed to take time off work to take them to their hospital appointments and it was someone elses fault I don't see why they shouldn't compensate you for your lost money. Could be even worse if you child was left with a disability that needed you to make your home more accessible. Why should the parent pay for that rather than the person who was negligent with hot liquids and caused the disability??

BoysAreLikeDogs · 18/03/2011 14:12

yes tbh it is safer for the children if hot drinks are not around

I'm sorry that you feel that it is ill thought through and irresponsible

but hey, the CC will be shut soon anyway, quite possibly, so you won't have this problem then Smile

Original poster
Crystyclear · 18/03/2011 14:17

mumwithadragontattoo sure! if the parent threw the hot drink over someone else's child and committed a crime.

by your logic if you went to visit a friend and your child was scalded by a drink there, then you'd sue them too?

OP posts:
CrystalsandDiamonds · 18/03/2011 23:38

all playgroups etc i have been to have the same rule but i thought it was something to do with insurance

vouvrey · 18/03/2011 23:41

your sign wouldn't be legally binding

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 18/03/2011 23:42

That wouldn't cover you, Crystyclear... it's a public building and there would need to be indemnity to cover it and the activities carried out within it.

Quite agree with you though, it's absolutely crazy. The claim/blame culture is out of control.

Chil1234 · 18/03/2011 23:46

I hope no-one took any notice of the sign OP. Probably far more dangerous to pack a dozen adults in a small kitchen balancing hot drinks and leave a corresponding dozen small children running unsupervised in another room....

WinterOfOurDiscountTents · 19/03/2011 00:00

serial namechanger, ashamed, I've been here for years. Wink

rollittherecollette · 19/03/2011 09:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Morloth · 19/03/2011 09:18

We have insurance at our playgroup it is part of an 'official' playgroup network.

Also what happens is that whoever is on the roster that week makes up a couple of plungers of coffee and the massive teapot and then leaves them to brew in the child gated kitchen. Once they are brewed up they are then served into the cups in the kitchen so by the time they actually leave the kitchen and get to where kids might be they are not very hot at all, i.e. I have spilled some on my hand before and it was just warm certainly not enough to burn.

This is slightly annoying if you like your coffee boiling like I do, but less annoying than risking a scalded kid (possibly even my own).

It works fine for us.

meditrina · 19/03/2011 09:19

Many many years ago, long before Elf and Safety, I was scalded in the face from a cup of coffee. It just missed my eye, and I carried the mark for some years before it faded.

Hot drinks and small children don't mix.

muminthemiddle · 19/03/2011 09:23

Well I can see where you are coming from BUT I was advised to join a union after hearing a horror story about a former nursery nurse. Many years ago she worked at a school nursery, one day a child had an accident and fell off a slide, and hurt his arm. It was all above board everything recorded and ;logged in the accident book, parents informed and completely accepted that it was a complete accident all staff had acted accordingly and not put the child at risk etc etc. Many years later-the child had actually left primary school-injury lawyers for you or similar knocked at the child's door and asked the question has your child ever been in an accident which was not your fault?
Bottom line the nursery worker and all the staff present on the day of the accident were taken to court with the sole intent of theparents trying to sue for compensation.
The school itself had seperate legal representation(which of course was costly and time consuming).
The only reason the nursery worker escaped in her opinion was down to having the backing of the union who basically told the parents to get fucked grow up and the case was thrown out of court.
She felt otherwise they would have been prepared to made her homeless in order to get their "just rewards"

So I don't blame the centre at all, but the graspng greedy lawyers.

LunaticIsOnTheGrass · 19/03/2011 09:29

My 28yr brother still has a scar that he got at 18 months from getting hold of a hot cup of tea Sad

I know I'm probably quite extreme on this but I don't even like hot drinks around my DC at home.

cumfy · 19/03/2011 10:08

She felt otherwise they would have been prepared to made her homeless in order to get their "just rewards"

So why was the potentially homeless individual singled-out ?

Was she the one nearest the incident ?

muminthemiddle · 19/03/2011 10:21

All of the staff who were working that day in nursery were sued, so too was the school but all the individual staff were left to fight for themselves. She had to rely on the union to fight for her. It was just a case of she was there.
Basically we live in a compensation culture and a blame society.
Also she was lucky because a member of staff had written down exactly what had happened so even though the incident had happened ages ago, the staff were able to account for their exact actions, the lawyers weren't banking on this.

Goblinchild · 19/03/2011 10:25

Orange squash for all. That's the answer.

tethersend · 19/03/2011 11:07

What's in the coffee that makes it so vitally important to have near small running children? Crack?

emptyshell · 19/03/2011 13:42

We had tea buckets in an old job of mine... instead of carrying a cup of tea around (and we only ever did this when the school was shut to the kids anyway), you had to balance the cup of hot tea in a washing up bowl and carry that precarious arrangement around to your classroom like some warped egg and spoon race.

Then there were never any tea buckets left in the staffroom as they were all mouldering around in the year 6 corridor along with everyone's "borrowed" mugs.

And yeah - people would sue in a heartbeat.

msshapelybottom · 19/03/2011 13:47

YANBU, but I suppose organisations have to make assumptions based on the lowest common denominator....

I love the sound of your own notice "enter at your own risk" - I might put that on my front door!

TastesLikePanda · 19/03/2011 15:39

When we are on a very rare training course, we are told that if you want to drink a hot drink, it must be in a travel mug with a lid to prevent spillages.
Could you invest in a bunch of those - maybe get sponsored ones? Then grown-ups get their drink and the risk is minimalised?

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