to expect mum at playground to entertain her own child?

[Liketochat1]

In the playground this morning I spent a hot half hour pushing someone else's child round the roundabout and entertaining him with a game of 'train driver'. Now, my dd was there too playing on the roundabout with him and joining in the game, but AIBU to expect the mum/nanny to stop sunbathing/texting and help or acknowledge me (or more importantly the child)?
Am I just grumpy because I'm hot and tired or do I have a point?

I can't wait till mine are old enough to play by themselves. Although my DS is 3.8yrs now and he still needs my constant attention. Mummy do this with me, mummy do that with me, pretend to be this and that etc etc. Plus running after my 23 months old DD and having to stop my DS pushing or shoving my DD, a trip to the park is soooooo not relaxing for me.

OP - YABU. You don't have to play with other DCs. If my DCs were happily playing with another child and their parents (very rarely this happens) I would happily kick back and relax.

I take my DGC to the park now, and let them run riot play by themselves.

On the rare occasion I'm in the mood for playing Evil Queen, I will play with any willing child.

No way would I start up a game and then tell a small child to fuck off.

Leaving other children out is one of the things I teach my children not to do.

I'm quite boggled at the idea of an adult getting involved in play and being so pettish about who is allowed to join in.

Better to be a lazy parent than a mean asshole teaching your children to be bullies.

getorf if you mean the round ones that are netting and it goes up to a point at the top, in the shape of a witches/wizards hat we have one of those at a park near us, its madness kids climb up and down and hang on for dear life as it whizzes round, they love it!

why would you tell the child to go and see what their parents are doing, they are probably watching them, the child can call for them/ go over to them if they want/need to!

If they want me to join in their game,I say 'pretend I'm the old lady sitting on the bench'

I try to take my mother to the park with us as often as humanly possible. She's fitter than me, and she loves all the interactive play shit, so I get to sunbathe.

My job ends at dispatching them at the park, if some silly bugger wants to get drawn into a game of who can bark the loudest with them, that's their problem.

I find me a nice sunny spot and read my kindle. I take them there for peace. They don't need constant adult interaction, although they willingly accept it if you are daft enough to offer it mainly in case you have sweets you might dish out they are happy to entertain themselves or find another neglected child to team up with.

lol at welsh

I can't believe they have bought those witch roundabouts back and they didn't tell me.

I'm with mrsdevere

And 5mad regarding the fag in peace

i am quite pissed off actually would love to have taken boys to the park today but ds4 has about ten random spots, they appeared yesterday afternoon, they arent blistery like chickenpox, but i am not sure what they are so am keeping them in the house/garden today until i know for sure what it is. would have loved to have gone to the park and let them play abandoned them to have a peaceful fag

getorf its fairly new and was a bit of a cock up at first as its concreted into the ground and kids fell off onto the concrete, they have now surrounded it with sand, you get a bloody good work out when you push it round full of kids! which is precisely why i let my boys do it themselves!

Hmmm.

Just you, then, OP.

Am I bad? I sometimes send DS off to volunteer to be on the other end of the seesaw when I see another parent desperately pushing one end up and down with their child on the other

I sit on my blanket with my book and thermos of tea and jammy dodgers, my children do whatever it is they do inside the park. Now and again I might get up and get them a icecream I wouldnt stop my children playing with whoever I would assume they are the child friendly type of adult and like children, unlike me LOL

I always thought the idea of the park was to meet other children and play together, I wouldn't send children away I'd go sit down and leave them to it

I think you have a point Liketochat1 however the majority view of this thread seems to be that children should entertain themselves.

Not sure how old the children are and I think that makes a difference. I am less likely to join in if DS has a friend with him. I wouldn't expect another parent to keep mine entertained and would call him back when if he was being a nuisance.

I wouldn't entertain someone else's child of more than a few minutes and if that makes me a silly bugger, stupid or a bully; ok then, fine.

at Jolly Mums.

I know one who insists on going through the tunnel, down the slide, up the cargo net in the TODDLER area, clearly thinking she is all that is madcap and fun.The kids look bemused and quite frankly, she gets in the jeffing way and makes me want to throw things.

Yep I agree with MrsDevere. My youngest DC is just coming up for 3 and has recently realised that the other kids are a lot more fun than mummy. Thank god, I can go back to my pre DC4 standard park behaviour of drinking a coffee whilst sitting and texting/reading :)

I actually object to other Mums interfering with his learning how to entertain himself in an appropriate way. Leave them alone at the park.

At home I do playdough, painting, drawing, puzzles etc etc but the park is time out from each other.

I would like to point out that although I am a slack mother, I DO play with children on a professional level.
Therefore I reserve the right to ignore mine at the park. Unless they are in danger or endangering someone else.
Then i might look up a shout something common at them.

In short
I can play. I chose not to.

I mean, you wouldnt go around doing the other mother's taxes in the park if you were an accountant would you?

So bugger me trying to encourage eye contact and reciprocal play on me day off.

Looks like I Tuesday's Queen of Slackness

Hurrah

Can I be your Lady in Waiting then?

That made me guffaw, MrsDeVere - now I have your professional example to follow, I think it'll be grand!

DS is pretty good at self-directed play. He's just keen on eating rubbish from the floor and leaping off high objects at the moment. Do they ever learn not to do that? That'll be when my book finally gets finished...

Sometimes I play with other people's children, sometimes I don't.
What I find puzzling is the people who do and then complain about it, as if they were under some sort of demonic coercion and had no free will.
You are grumpy OP because you didn't want to entertain someone else's child.
Ask yourself why you did.

Of course, I need plenty of minions.
Its hard work being this slack.

The DCs are downstairs on the x box as I type.

blackcurrants I am so glad I could set your mind at rest