Who was in the wrong here - softplay incident.

[OohMavis]

I took my DD (2), DS (5) and nephew who is coming up two, to softplay today. We were playing in the 5-and-under area, DS was taking DD up the stairs to slide down the slide whilst I stayed on the mats with their cousin, who's a bit cautious.

They'd made their way round the course and down the slide successfully about fifteen or so times, when a lady and her 18mo came into the area. They played in the ball pit for a bit, and then her little boy became interested in what DS and DD were doing. He sat at the bottom of the slide and watched as they came down, fascinated.

Nephew wanted to go into the ball pit, so in we went. I could still see DD and DS running around the upstairs bit, and see them sitting down ready to slide down, but the slide itself was obscured from my view. All of a sudden I heard a THUD and hysterical crying. I ran to them to find the 18mo had somehow toppled off the slide onto the floor.

His mother runs over (she was standing at the netting which borders the play area), picks up her son and tells me, quite angrily, what had happened.

Her son was climbing up the slide and my DS and DD had come down the slide at speed (it's a spiral slide and they wouldn't have seen him at the bottom) and knocked into him, causing him to fall.

And then an exchange of words.

"You need to watch your kids rather than letting them trample all over babies"
"They obviously didn't see him"
"Well they need to be more careful then!"
"Why were you letting your son climb the slide knowing there were other kids using it?"
"It's a baby area love, sort your fucking kids out"

And she stomped out, went to talk to the staff at the cafe, then sat down glaring at me.

I realise I probably could have just apologised and little would have been said, but she was being really aggressive. In situations like these I usually just mumble and say nothing, but I really didn't feel I was in the wrong, and her attitude really put my back up. Even so I feel shit, this sort of thing tends to play on my mind for a while. I hate confrontation.

Who was BU here?

One of the reasons I never went to softplay with my two beyond one occasions.
Ghastly place
YANBU.

*It's called a slide not a climb". Must remember that one next time I'm at the park and some little shit is climbing up the slide.

Swbu. Every soft play I've ever been to has had this on a sign somewhere in the building just in case somebody suffers from a distinct lack of common sense.

I hate soft play. A few weeks ago a child pinned my daughter down and sat on her, repeatedly hitting her (completely unprovoked, she had just come down the slide). His parent wasn't watching so after asking him several times to stop it and him refusing, I told him off (not shouting or raising my voice, but I was stern like a teacher). His mother gave me a telling off when she eventually took notice and told me to apologise to her son. I did as I thought it would be a good example to set to him since he was refusing to apologise to DD. No apology from either him or his mother about his behaviour afterwards though, and his mother followed me around explaining patronisingly why I shouldn't tell other people's children off even if they are being incredibly violent towards my DD. I had to leave in the end because otherwise I was going to really shout at her.
Her son had spent the previous hour attacking children left right and centre with barely a word or raised eyebrow from her.
In the end I realised that she'll get a shock soon when he is getting in to trouble at school and left it at that.
They are horrible places.

She was in the wrong for not supervising her child properly. Nobody can expect an 18 month old to have much awareness of what they should or shouldn't be doing in a soft play area. She shouldn't have let him climb up the slide. That is a no.

She is the one being unreasonable. My DC is 4 now so does tend to explore the play area more independantly, the other day he came running to me in tears saying he had hurt himself, a much older girl came over to say she knocked him as she came down the slide (he had obviously climbed up) it was 100% not this girls fault at all.

Why did the mother stand and watch her child climbing up the slide only to get upset when the inevitable happens. She was probably just feeling guilty and embarrassed so trying to pass the blame.

She was in the wrong - you don't stand out of reach by some netting to watch your 18 month old child climb the wrong way up a slide. What a stupid woman. Staff never allow children to climb the wrong way up slides in soft play areas if they catch them doing it, because it's dangerous.

Any idiot climbing up a slide deserves to be knocked down.

And that includes you, obnoxious 6-ish year old who got flattened by a friends 10 year old when you were monopolising the over10s section.

Serves you right.

Even my two year old knows slides are for down.

I spend a huge portion on my time in soft play either telling 19mo DD not to play at the bottom of the slide or removing her from the area. It's a ball ache but there you go. Kids are drawn to it for some reason. She's not moved quickly enough after sliding and been got a couple of times. Lesson learned for the next 5mins at least. However, it is not the other child's fault and I wouldn't blame them or their parent. The fault is mine and my stubborn DD's. YANBU OP.

Now, the Dad who slid down the very-straight-can-see-the-bottom-no-excuses slide immediately after DH on Saturday (who had gone down with DD between his legs), not allowing him time to clear and slamming straight into him on the other hand...