to think talking/touching a random child could get me into trouble?

[charlmascaraoxo]

Took my dd to a soft play area today.

Theres a tunnel and you crawl through into a small cube and then climb up and go down a slide. (I think adults can fit but I'm a tad claustrophobic.)

Let dd crawl through the tunnel and I was waiting at the other end, as she was playing peek a boo through the hole.

Had a random small child sit next to me and start talking to me, he was probably about 3. He asked me to lift him up the ladder so he could go down the slide.

Now this is totally stupid but I said, you have to go and ask your mummy or daddy sweetheart, and got up and left.

I would have gladly spoken to the little boy and helped him up, but as I was an adult standing by myself in the play area I had a horrible feeling I would get into trouble for talking to and then lifting the child.

My friend who I was with was having a coffee at the time and completely agreed with me.

And I being silly and unreasonable? Or is it sadly common in these days to worry about your every move to do with children?

It wasn't a playground though.
it was a toddler slide in a soft play. I don't think anyone would lift a toddler onto playground equipment would they?

It's pretty obvious whether a kid can handle a slide or not and if there's any chance they can't, the OP would have been there anyway.

I'm not talking about putting a toddler on a massive slide in a park...just the little slides in a soft play center.

As I said, DD almost hurt her her leg badly on a slide at soft play. It happens. You don't know their age, their ability, their possible disability, their fear level, nothing.

I wouldn't lift a child onto play equipment either. I generally subscribe to the "if you can't climb up yourself, you're not old enough" point of view. I wouldn't hesitate to lift a child down if they asked though.

TBH my immediate reaction would be to help them. I can very rarely manage to get inside play areas etc because of my disability, so am always very grateful when other adults help DS. Have never minded.

Yes but if she was being supervised by an adult who put her up there and stayed while she slid down, she wouldn't have hurt herself would she?

Jeez these slides are very small with padded stuff everywhere.

Thankfully in my nearly 21yrs as a mother, helping a small child has never caused anyone a problem.

I probably wouldn't lift a child onto something, because I would have no idea whether they could do whatever it was. But anything else,ni would do without thinking. I think you are wrong, OP.

I think we should actually fight against this insanity and actively interact in a low key way with children.

No I wouldn't help up but would help down.
Always willing to chat though and wouldn't hesitate to intervene if I thought a child was in danger.

I am sticking my neck out and thinking YANBU but mainly because when the DCs were small the rule was if you can't make it up the playframe steps/tunnel by yourself then you aren't big enough to play on them and need to find something else also I am a lazy arse and have come for a coffee not to play with my kids heavens forbid

Just to say if a child was stuck or had fallen over then of course I would help them up. And wouldn't hesitate touching them.

I should explain the equipment properly, in the cube there are stairs up to the slide, a younger kids like my dd have no problem getting up.

There is a net for other kids to climb and it is quite high and I wouldn't have been able to lift and place him at the top.