to ask you about slide etiquette

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DS is 4.4, he's my PFB so i've no idea about most things especially slide etiquette. Have always tried to teach him not to climb up slides and when sliding down to wait until the person before has got off slide before he starts sliding.

Anyway today we have been to a well known pub chain for lunch and DS was playing in the garden after. There weren't many children about but then a couple of children turned up around the same time and i presumed they were together, an older boy of around 8 and a younger boy of 5, maybe 6. Anyway DS gets chatting to the younger boy and they end up playing together showing each other how they can climb on climbing frame and then they start playing tag.

Next thing they are chasing around and the younger boy has ran up top of slide and wants to slide down cus DS is chasing him but the older boy is climbling up slide so the younger boy just slides down anyway, there was no harm done the older boy didn't get knocked off or anything but then this woman comes storming over shouting 'you don't slide down slides when some one is climbing up are you stupid or something' to the younger boy. The younger boy didn't seen at all bothered and i sort of presumed it was her child and thought she was being abit harsh on him, if i had realised at the time it wasn't her child i would have said something there and then. But as we sat longer we sort of realised that the younger child wasn't with her at all, his parents were inside the pub (but thats a whole different topic).

With my DS and slides i teach him not to climb up, obviously sometimes he still does (because he totally ignores what i say) but if he was climbing up and he got a slight knock from someone climbing down i'd tell him thats what you get for climbing slides, i certainly wouldn't tell off the other child.

My God, first world problem or what? No, you don't slide down when someone is climbing up.........but then no-one SHOULD be climbing up, should they?

'You shouldn't slide down when someone is climbing up'.

Um no, you just shouldn't climb up.

Arabella is this your first time on Aibu? It's full of first world problems ffs don't be a mardy arse.

OP yanbu, I teach DS not to climb up slides (but he's two and often also ignores me) but if he got a knock from climbing up I'd be more 'see that's why I tell you not to' rather than having a go at another smaller child. The older child should know better, but clearly doesn't with a mother like that

I think if you are climbing up while someone else is about to come down... Well, you should be prepared for the consequences! Climbing up is fun though! But not for when it's busy.

I think parent slide ettiquette says you don't climb up slides, you wait your turn nicely etc, but child etiquette is different. I tend to leave them to it in the situation op describes, where the children have sort.of agreed their rules between themselves, are playing together harmoniously, and not in unreasonable chance of having an accicdentt, but would intervene if they were interfering with other children or there were smaller children around or damaging the equipment. Park etiquette is very confusing. Its one of the many reason park trips are so stressful.

Oh I don't know, this one always got me too.

In a park for little ones, say under 5s, no, no-one should climb up but if it's for older kids, they have to have somewhere they can be a bit wild.

So, if it was a toddler slide, the older boy shouldn't have been going up, but if it was a slide designed for bigger kids, the little ones should have had closer supervision so that they weren't getting in the bigger kids way IMO. I don't think it's fair to expect older kids to always make way for the little ones.

It's a two way street. You don't climb up slides. You also don't slide down when someone is climbing up.

You don't just keep barreling through an intersection just because a person wasn't suppose to run a stop sign do you?

We teach "don't climb up" and when it is busy I will remind any child that it's for sliding down, not climbing up. Not least because it takes bloody ages and six could have been sliding in that time.

When it's teenagers and there are bewildered preschoolers waiting patiently at the top I am more assertive in my reminders and have used the phrase "old enough to know better".

I never understood the climbing up a slide. Yet my DC did so with alarming regularity. A slide is to whoosh down!

not admitting to eyeing the slides in the park to see if anyone around before having a crafty slide down with no children in tow

Snakes and Ladders - up the ladder, down the snake (or slide in this case). You don't climb up the slide. If you do, expect to be knocked off. There is a clue in the descriptive noun = SLIDE

I've often wondered about the whizzy roundabout thing. "Oh could you please stop, as there is a child trapped underneath getting skinned with the gravel."

Ah see this is interesting. My understanding is that the play equipment is there for the children to play on and explore, so I encourage my kids to be thoughtful towards other children using the play equipment, but don't stipulate how they should use the play equipment. They get that when its busy and when lots of kids are coming down the slide - choosing to climb the slide isn't a good idea. If its safe to so they can use it however they wish.

Will no one let children be children and climb and slide and just find their own feet? Perpetual helicopter parenting will destroy a generation. If you cant take or assess a risk you may as well live in a plastic bubble.

::shakes head::

I think kids should be able to do what they like with slides so long as it doesn't inconvenience others. someone sliding down should always have the right of way over a climber-upper.

There's normally a climbing frame for climbing on, and finding feet isn't there? A slide is for sliding. There are rules, you know! These rules are important for life in general, too.

FiL started driving onto the motorway once from the wrong direction on a sliproad, facing oncoming traffic. I think he's done all the exploring (and finding his feet) he needs to last him the rest of his life!

(And a sense of humour is also allowed on these threads sometimes)

Helicopter parenting Pffft - I don't even know what that means!
Must be one of these new-fangled phrases

I've tried to teach my DCs not to climb up slides. We go to a couple of soft play places that stipulate this, so they need to learn.

I've also tried to teach them not to slide down into someone else.

Completely with Admit. It's a playground, it's for playing, I let my kids do whatever they like on the play equipment unless they look like they're about to kill themselves or someone else. As far as the slide is concerned, it's fine to climb up, but not if there are people wanting to come down. In a quiet playground, go for it.

In the situation described by the op where the kids were sorting themselves out I would have let them get on with it. Woman who came over sounds a bit deranged if she had no dc of her own on the slide!

helicopter parenting oh shite my now adult DC's have never been in a helicopter! The planet is doomed! Doomed I tell you!

So if a slider-downer crashes into a climber-upper - who gets the blame for the catastrophe? (Bearing in mind that the slider-downer has, actually, right of way). But climber-upper might be carted off to hospital with severe head injuries (or at the very least, a black eye)!

To my mind, still not slider-downer's fault, climber-upper knew the risks.

I believe peppa pig has actually done this AIBU for us " there is only one rule at the playground, and that is that everyone waits their turn".

I know it doesn't help. Peppa pig rarely does.

If I was the big kid's mother I would have just told him that if he's going to climb up slides then somebody will probably slide into you. Maybe the younger kid was trying to make a point - sliding down has right of way :)

I go with: if you or you and friend are the only people there then you can climb up. If it is busy enough to matter then you can only slide down.

I saw a lad I was at Primary with break both his legs by climbing up a slide whilst someone slid down. It was horrible and my friend and I had to run to his house and get his Mum. It has always stayed with me and I absolutely hate seeing children climb up slides.

I hate slide-climbing. It's rude and dangerous.

The etiquette is don't be a dick.

If someone is climbing up, don't slide into them.

If children are waiting to slide down, don't climb up.

1. If you use any play equipment in a pub garden you have a greater chance of pissed, irrational and shouty people being unreasonable
2. I remember getting quite uptight with pfb and people(small children) going the wrong way up thE slide. Then I got over it!