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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask why people get so worked up over playground accidents!

46 replies

Headachehattie123 · 15/01/2017 11:22

I get we don't like seeing our kids injured but surely they get all the same injuries out of school too?
So why do people get worked up over them just because they're in school when surely the risk is increased by so much taking into consideration the amount of kids!
Charging around a playground will end up with bumps on heads, bruises and so on!
Am I missing something as all the threads I've seen recently parents seem insistent on keeping their kids scuff free which is absurd as a mother of a boisterous boy myself!

OP posts:

ghostspirit · 15/01/2017 19:04

When I was a kid we were allowed in the play ground when it was snowing. And when it was raining slightly. It was fun kids got knocked odd bruise. May have even broken something. But we were allowed to run jump have fun. Now the kids are not even allowed out if the ground it wet. And all I hear from parents is dint run you will fall. Stop running. Don't do this don't do that.

hazeyjane · 15/01/2017 19:05

I seemed to have missed all these threads too!

Dds get into scrapes and bumps, it happens.

I do get a bit more arsey when ds comes home and I discover bruises all over his legs, or he is limping. He is disabled and has subluxed his hip before because of a little fall, he also can't talk very well, so if something has happened (he has been pushed over by other boys) he can't really tell me very well.

Original poster

Headachehattie123 · 15/01/2017 19:40

Do these threads go after a while if not looked at?
Just minor things I saw on here and combined with the parents at my kids school constantly whinging it made me wonder what is up with people!

OP posts:

Mumzypopz · 15/01/2017 20:24

Headachehattie123.....Sorry, but what's a standard 2 or 3 entry school? Is this a Junior school? You say how can supervisors stop it happening when not enough supervisors to too many children? You have no idea how many supervisors or children there were? This incident is precisely the sort of thing the supervisors are there for, and I would hope there were enough of them to see a child getting chased round the playground by a group of boys and being constantly pushed over.

PurpleMinionMummy · 15/01/2017 20:28

There are no adult:child ratios for lunchtime supervison....they often end up supervising far more than a class worth of kids

123bananas · 15/01/2017 20:29

YANBU Although I do not get annoyed about bumps and scrapes I do get annoyed when the school waits to contact me until the end of the school day, then minimises what happened 'just a little bump', leaving me mouth open shocked when I saw dd1 whose whole cheek was purple. She developed concussion as a result of her injury. It was 3 weeks until the bruising and swelling reduced.

Mumzypopz · 15/01/2017 20:30

Multivac.....If forming a gang and chasing one boy around the playground to push him over constantly isn't bullying, what would you call it? I don't see why people say a one off incident isn't bullying....He certainly felt bullied that day. Who made the rule that it has to be done twice? They say it's how the victim feels, it's not for the bully to decide whether it's bullying or not.

Original poster

Headachehattie123 · 15/01/2017 20:30

sorry by a standard 2 or 3 entry school I mean 60-90 kids per year group, mainly key stage 1 play together and then key stage 2 so that can be up to 270 children in one area
The ratio of adults isn't the same in a playground as it needs to be on trips and so on so things are easily missed
I'm not saying that's not a shame but I think people need to be realistic about how many eyes people actually have!

OP posts:

UnderClaws · 15/01/2017 20:36

I'm divided on this. As a teacher I dealt with way too many overreactions and I have friends who do too. My first ds was a typical boy and thumps everywhere as per norm, I laughed. But then he changed school, I was getting 3-5 bumped head letters a week. I started to get concerned, but was brushed off with he's been playing. I felt awful when he finally divulged the deliberate nature of it. Another school I worked in had a playground with no play equipment, 240 kids in a tiny bare concrete rectangle, I understood parental annoyance at the constant injuries that occurred from boredom or simply running in a crowded space.

Dd is a different kettle of fish, in that parent who demands answers. Poor language and social skills, passive and still. Actively hides from others, when she comes from play with a bite mark or big injuryi can't accept it as one of those things.

There's often shades of grey, I understand my uncles annoyance that I used to think odd as my dd is like his ds. It used to look like overreaction but now I can see he knew his son was vulnerable and not going to have the usual scrapes in normal circumstances. Often we don't know the full picture when we judge others. A parent may look over the top but have quite logical reasons you don't know. If my ds fell off the monkey bars I'd call him a lemon, if school told me dd did I led want to know what actually happened as it's quite An unbelievable story.

YouTheCat · 15/01/2017 20:45

We have a parent who patrols round the perimeter fence, watching the lunch time staff. He's an utter twat, comes in to intimidate female staff members at least once a week.

Accidents happen. The worst ones usually happen to children who aren't where they're supposed to be.

Mumzypopz · 15/01/2017 20:51

Youthecat. I'd be really concerned about that parent. Can't the head ask him politely to stop?

UnderClaws · 15/01/2017 20:52

We had a number of parents come every lunch! They'd give a blow by blow run down of play from their dc's perspective which was so hard to disprove without the same detail. Ended up having to waste a staff member to trail one child in the face of police contact (8 yr olds!), formal complaints, letters to MPs etc.

X hit my son!

Became

X hit your son after days of near constant physical and verbal provocation that was so sly that even trailing the children left it still near impossible to stop!

Tbf the kid wasn't evil, just from a young age had been ingrained both that they could do no wrong and their father only gave them attention when they were slighted in some way...

YouTheCat · 15/01/2017 21:05

Mumzy, I think it has now got to that stage.

Original poster

Headachehattie123 · 15/01/2017 21:13

He walks around the school at lunchtime?!?
Jesus
And the staff haven't asked him to stop?

OP posts:

Mumzypopz · 15/01/2017 21:20

HeadacheHattie123....Just curious, is it the same parents whinging all the time, or different ones? I guess some parents are predisposed to be whingers and complain about most things, and other parents fairly quiet? Being a quiet parent myself who hardly ever says boo to a goose, for me to ring in , it would have to be something I consider to be pretty serious. Would I be taken more seriously than the constant whingers?

Original poster

Headachehattie123 · 15/01/2017 21:36

I don't know actually as ours seem to have both quite outspoken people and quiet people doing it, the quiet ones just might not tell everyone that they're doing it but it's quite obvious tbh
Sorry your son was hurt , I guess being the mum of a boisterous child where mine gets the finger pointed quite a bit, it becomes annoying when I know full well the others are just as bad out of the watch of their parents.
I'm not saying that's the case here but it is often the case from what I've seen.

OP posts:

Mumzypopz · 15/01/2017 21:51

HeadacheHattie123. .I do agree, in a class of say 30 or so, none of them will be perfect, my DS included. I always try to take a balanced view and let the teachers get on with their job, and not want to hassle them or anything. I would like to think there were like minded parents like me? I guess some parents ruin it for everyone and give all parents a bad reputation.

Satansbanana · 15/01/2017 21:52

My DS2 has dyspraxia so he was forever falling over, managed two black eyes in the first two weeks of reception class, he fell against a sink in the toilets in week one and then followed it up by tripping head first into the bin store in week two. He fell head first into a nail sticking out of the playground wall (did think this one was maybe a bit of a health and safety issue), broke his finger miscatching a cricket ball etc etc...school had us on speed dial. He's now a strapping 16 year old and I still dread seeing school's number coming up on my phone!

Original poster

Headachehattie123 · 15/01/2017 21:56

Yes you're right it is only a few who think their children do nothing even slightly incorrect ever that puts my back up as every injury their children get must have been at the hands of someone else and their child would have hated the game and never joined in and so on

OP posts:

Original poster

Headachehattie123 · 16/01/2017 08:04

I actually wasn't aware there is no ratio to lunchtime supervision though!
I assumed it was quite / very low but I did think they would " have " to have a certain amount.

OP posts:

TheSultanofPingu · 16/01/2017 14:48

I'm a midday supervisor in junior school with around 340 pupils. There are seven of us (for playground supervision). Two year groups are out playing for the first half an hour, then they go in for lunch and the other two year groups come out. I've just worked out the ratio and it's around 24 to 1.
For the last ten minutes the majority of the children are outside. That's when we really need eyes in the back of our heads.

Children hurt themselves.no matter how well they are supervised, accidents will happen. Luckily most visits to first aid are pretty minor. If anything is concerning me I will take the child to the office and they will deal with it.

I think most parents understand that children can hurt themselves at school as well as at home, but some may worry that they aren't being supervised properly, especially if they are bringing accident slips home regularly.

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