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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To just despair about some parents...

57 replies

Scarredbutnotbroken · 14/07/2012 17:34

Took dd to a small park today. It's tarmac but has patches of soft springy stuff which the play equipment sits on.

Lots of kids there today of various ages. Then there was a dad with a baby of maybe 9 months? Maybe bit less, sitting but not crawling. The dad had put the baby at first on the springy floor on front of the swings. Dc asked me to push her on the swing. I took her over there and assumed the dad would move the baby out of the way - he did reluctantly eventually - I was at the point of asking him to. He then proceeded to move the baby around the springy bits until each time kids were stepping/tripping over it until he moved it again.
He had brought a football with him which obviously is too big for a baby to manipulate do naturally it picked up stones etc off the ground and every time dad removed them.

AIBU to think this was completely daft? Plus the fact that this play park is in the middle of a whopping grass park where he could have sat on the ground with the baby more easily?

OP posts:

ganglygiraffe · 14/07/2012 18:18

the people on this thread

RuleBritannia · 14/07/2012 18:18

As another poster said, he got there first. You pushed him out. Did you glare at him with the look asking him to move?

Moominsarescary · 14/07/2012 18:19

Don't see a problem if he moved the baby

Original poster

Scarredbutnotbroken · 14/07/2012 18:20

Oh and Mrsdevere - sheltered hardly - in all the hundreds of hours I've spent in parks with the dc I've never seen any parent do this.

The thing with the stones just made me think - what was he expecting the baby to do placed on the ground?

OP posts:

diddl · 14/07/2012 18:21

But he wasn´t using the swings-just letting his baby crawl on the spongy area around them.

Should the swings not have been used until he had finished?

Vixxen · 14/07/2012 18:21

Well I thought this thread would be about something really dreadful, like a father shooting up with his kids in a play park or something. But an innocent father playing with his baby in the park? Wow

LRDtheFeministDragon · 14/07/2012 18:22

It is a bit daft, but he moved her. I don't get why she 'despairs'.

It's got bugger all to do with him being the dad (or male, since worra has a point).

Coconutty · 14/07/2012 18:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GetOrfMoiiLand · 14/07/2012 18:24

VERY disappointed with this thread.

I was anticipating a judgefest, all we get is a slightly dozy dad and a baby and park surface treatments.

Pah.

GetOrfMoiiLand · 14/07/2012 18:24

VERY disappointed with this thread.

I was anticipating a judgefest, all we get is a slightly dozy dad and a baby and park surface treatments.

Pah.

ganglygiraffe · 14/07/2012 18:27

How about if he had 'bagsied' the area at the bottom of the slide? Should no one be allowed to use the slide until he had finished?

disclaimer I am aware that a baby playing in the park is not a crisis, I am just very bored

whatthewhatthebleep · 14/07/2012 18:27

are you very stressed?...were you worried your DC would chuck a huge wobbler if they didn't get on the swing or something?

Poor dad of wee scone...just investigating and enjoying watching around the play park...sensible man put babe on safe surface, watching for the odd stone that could cause harm and letting babe have some discovery time....

manners would tell me that we don't go on the swing because someone is using the space at the moment....wait a bit and do other things and maybe strike up a nice chat with the daddy of said babe and be friendly about your DC coming for a shot of swing...'do you mind'...'won't be long'...thanks...

maybe you just wanted to put a post on...it seemed like a good idea at the time ???

yabvu...picking on innocent not meaning to bother anyone man/daddy whoever he was and then coming home to moan and critisize him for being what...a crap parent?....really????...and the baby is not an 'it' !!!

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere · 14/07/2012 18:27

Well I asked if you were sheltered cos you are despairing.
Spending hundreds of hours in a park doesn't really count as not leading a sheltered life

Now I you had said Aibu to have made this noise 'tsk' in the park today

You might have a point.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 14/07/2012 18:30

Well said MrsDeVere.

I dunno ... probably this marks me out as unfit ever to so much as hold a baby ever again, but I rather thought part of the appeal for small crawling babies is picking things up and trying to grab stuff they can't yet quite manage, crawling around and so on? And then you spend lots of time saying 'no, don't eat the stone/shoe/ball/finger' and taking it away, no? If I have been doing it all wrong I'd best report myself as an unfit babysitter right away.

Viviennemary · 14/07/2012 18:30

It would have annoyed me a bit I suppose. But if the grass was wet I would have understood why he didn't want the baby on the grass. If there was a springy bit away from the swings he should have gone there. I don't think it was very safe having a baby crawling where there was other children running around and swings.

DontstepontheMomeRaths · 14/07/2012 18:31

Maybe he was worried the baby would fall down. My two still couldn't keep themselves upright very well at 8 months and would fall back and bang their head on the ground. Springy stuff seems perfect.

Does seem a bit odd to take a small baby there which is too young for anything but at least he was spending time with the baby as others have said

MainlyMaynie · 14/07/2012 18:32

Aw, how mean of you to sneer at an excited new father. YABU and unkind.

HandMini · 14/07/2012 18:38

I've seen much much worse playground etiquette than this.

I hope you werent eye rolling at this poor chap as you are on this thread.

Moominsarescary · 14/07/2012 18:39

Parks are full of pita children, toddlers trying to run in front of swings, sitting down at bottom of slide, climbing up the wrong way and having to be removed. Older children accidentally knocking younger children down, that's just the way parks are

Socknickingpixie · 14/07/2012 19:05

Perhaps he didn't know the spongey bits are intended to be for children using the equipment, why didn't you smile nicely explain and surgest he showed the baby things not so near the safety area or what ever there called

AmberLeaf · 14/07/2012 19:12

I think you have to be a special sort of stupid to think putting your 9 month old baby right by the swings is sensible tbh.

Even I get out of the way when we are near the swings.

He sounds like a bit of a wally and if my DCs dad had been so silly when ours were that age I'd have told him 'you're very silly'.

whatthewhatthebleep · 14/07/2012 19:15

hahahaha a special sort of stupid....

monkeyspiss · 14/07/2012 19:20

So he sat her on the springy bit until somebody wanted to use the equipment, and then moved her without being asked to?

And you despair, because....?

monkeyspiss · 14/07/2012 19:22

From the OP:

"Then there was a dad with a baby of maybe 9 months? Maybe bit less, sitting but not crawling."

AmberLeaf · 14/07/2012 19:25

He then proceeded to move the baby around the springy bits until each time kids were stepping/tripping over it until he moved it again

He was stupid more than once. He clearly didn't learn.

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