Parents that let their children "run wild" indoors in a public confined space are uncouth

[feellikeahugefailure]

So watching swimming lessons (again...) on a mezzanine floor with other parents. Some have brought their other children along and let them run around the place, up and down on a wooden floor that reverberates throughout the whole pool room making a lot of noise. Some even run into me, no apology from either the child or the parent and the parent says nothing to them.

They are uncouth right?

The chair comment was very tongue in cheek.

There are times and places for chidren to be let loose to be children, just as there are times and places for them to be to be under a certain level of control, often for their own safety, let alone that of others.

There are expectations of certain levels of behaviour / parenting that I do not find unreasonable, nor do I imagine would most people.

I certainly don't want to buy food that a child has stamped all over and there is an expectation that a child would not be found in their outdoor shoes jumping up and down in a freezer in a supermarket.

Most people manage to parent beautifully, and we all know children have meltdowns, but there are many that let them run riot and simply don't care. Why should I put up with your children when you obviously can't be arsed to yourself?

Op - I had to do a double take. That was me on Monday night!

Flipping kids chasing each other up and down, running along the benches, jumping over me, squishing my feet, howling, throwing school bags as their bloody mothers day with their mucky feet on the back of the bench backrests (tiered benches) which is my absolute bugbear.

I don't hate the kids, but the behaviour is hate-able, yes.

However, being entirely honest, as a secondary school teacher, you'd be beyond kidding yourself to think that we are complimentary of the parenting of the "free spirits" in our care. And not comparing notes on what a thoroughly unlikeable young adult they've unfortunately become.

Plantsitter you obviously have no sense of fun or humour. I think you should stop sucking lemons and chill out.

No I wouldn't let YDC run around a restaurant / cafe but I would whilst watching ODC swimming. No harm. I wouldn't allow him to bump into people without acknowledging it's wrong but he could run around if safe. It's a public swimming baths so YABU

*This thread is awful!! Such hatred!

And I'm not someone who let's my kids run free either (though frankly in a sports centre you could fuck right off). But, really, 'if you can't control it don't bring it out' and tying children to chairs? On mumsnet? Really?!*

Couldn't agree more. Horrible reading

Plant you need to chill out. There is a difference in a child having a tantrum and the parent attending to them, or child in a cafe wanting to wander but the parent should get of their arse and bring them back to the table. My issue is with parents who LET their kids behave like all public places are thier personal playground with no thought of others. I think they're lazy and disrespectful to people around them.

There was a family with two kids both on scooters in Iceland today zooming through the Isles bumping people's trollies and legs I couldn't believe it.

Draconian parent with 4 biters here.

Playgrounds, fields, beaches and play centres are for running around in (or on), restaurants are for sitting nicely and eating in, supermarkets are for shopping and you're not supposed to run near swimming pools (the signs clearly say so at ours).

Unruly, unsupervised behaviour drives me mad, not least as I shouldn't have to justify basic safety and manners to my little lot and seem like a big meanie not to mention sound like my Mum just because 'everyone else is doing it'.

All these awful posters on here! They obviously only joined MUMSNET because they hate kids.

I would just like to point out that since you're using uncouth to replace c*, surely it should be spelt unCouth?

Just reading this thread, I can tell which posters have used the phrase 'free spirit' with their little darlings.

Midnight

YADNBU.

My DS2 (3) goes to a tapdance class - he started it a few weeks ago and the first week he was there, he was a little wary because it was a different teacher and a new class.
There was a woman there who brought her own DD to the class, but also her 2yo DS. This boy was allowed to run riot through the class - barging into the line, to be next to his sister, pushing DS2 out the way, and then running round the rest of the hall.
DS2 is very wary of him now - and it distracts him and the other children in the class when this child is allowed to run around freely. The mother smiles indulgently and does SFA about it, which is pretty annoying! The teachers are quite young and not really in a position to tell the mothers off!

Yanbu.

My child is no angel, but if she acts up, I leave.

Sometimes I can see the appeal of kid-leashes after instances of such behaviour.

Isn't letting your tot run around a swimming pool incredibly dangerous?? What if they slip and fall into the water??

Isn't running around a wet swimming pool area incredibly dangerous? Especially for a tiny one who can't swim! All it takes is one slip and fall..

Ah yes, 'spirited' children. You've got to love 'em and their wet lettuce over-indulgent parents who always seem oblivious to the irritation they are causing to those in close proximity to them.

I love to see children let of steam and run wild now and again. IN THE RIGHT SETTING. I completely agree with keeptrudging children who are not taught appropriate boundaries/behaviour in certain settings are being hugely let down by their parents.

Just lately I have been seeing increasing numbers of children totally running amok in supermarkets, literally racing up and down the aisles with loaded trolleys, spinning them around for fun.

Their stupid fuckwit parents just TOTALLY ignore it as if it's a perfectly acceptable way for a ten year old boy and his 8 year old brother to behave so long as it keeps them from being bored while the shopping gets done.

My icy death stare is becoming extremely well honed.

I cannot love this thread enough.

I work in a supermarket and the number of parents that let their children run rampant in the aisles is huge. There are trolleys, shelves of tins, staff pushing large carts etc. There is one mother (she shops with her sunnies on and lets the 4yo chase after the 2yo) who thinks it is funny when her DC pull all the shelf tags off and throw them on the floor. This is about an hours work to sort and retag everything. The parents feed their kids food then leave the packets empty and don't pay ooh I could go on.

Ds becomes distressed by other children running about in places where it is not expected. Sometimes there is nothing you can do about noise ( ds due to his sn can be very noisy) but you can stop the running about. We don't cone across it very often though.

So because its a leisure centre children should be able to run about anywhere? With parenting attitudes like that no wonder the brats I see all the time. The word was chavvy not cunt!

Demand your children are allowed to run pool side, up and down the stairs, through classes, behind reception and through the gym with people carrying heavy weights.

Just reading this thread, I can tell which posters have used the phrase 'free spirit' with their little darlings.

Someone up thread asked how hard is it to tell your children to sit down and behave, I think the answer to that is it's harder than not bothering at all. It's so much easier to let your children run riot and call them free spirits than put in the effort to teach them appropriate behaviour and bother to remember to bring things with you to entertain them, or entertain them yourself.

When they're very little it can be seen as "cute" toddler behaviour, but what's cute on a toddler is annoying in a child and obnoxious in a teen.

The thing is one sibling group of my cousins were free spirits. Or bloody pains in the arse. Atrocious eating behaviour, backchat etc etc.

They are now super-successful people. One was recently featured in Sunday Times Magazine.

My dcs are not bumptious and obnoxious, but I think I am raising cowed also-rans.

I go to the poshest private members' swimming pool in my city and the behaviour of some of the children there for swimming lessons, coupled with the indulgent knobbery of their parents, is unbelievable. There's a one swimmer per lane rule, but these parents let their kids dive right into people's lanes, almost on top of them. Or run about like mad around the sides of the pool, chucking stuff in. This is all before the swimming lesson starts and the parents just sit there on their phones. Except one guy, whose son leapt into the pool and cut right across everyone who was swimming (people are there for serious, fast swimming, so the child could easily have been hurt) then jumps out and is saying 'ha ha Dad, you can't tell me what to do.'

The Dad responded, but by ignoring that and starting an impromptu Spanish lesson. Takes all sorts.