To think this rules to apply to "our little darling"

[NootNoot]

Hard hat on & fire extinguisher ready

Went to Kew Gardens over the weekend- gorgeous day, place was packed, lots of families. Plenty of youngsters running about, shouting, having a great old time.

Walking past the Orangery there is a lovely display of small blue flowers which have cropped up on the grass- not bluebells but tiny little meadow flower type things. Signs every 5-10m saying "these are part of our meadow collection, please stay off the grass". Small child aged about 3, running up & down through the flowers, stamping on them, picking them etc. Parents looking on indulgently, taking photographs etc.

Middle aged man with a rather fancy camera (looked like a realy Kew enthusiast) lost his shit with the parents- pointed out the child was destroying the flowers, clearly states keep off grass etc etc. Parents just smile benignly & said "oh but she's having so much fun"..

I appreciate toddlers can be tricky/wilful etc but for the love of god that surely isn't an excuse to trash the place? There's tonnes of "plain" grass areas to run about/pick daisies etc. FWIW we crossed paths with them later on & the father was watching the child pulling petals off the magnolia trees!!

Similar situation witnessed a few weeks ago at a National Trust property. Mother and 2 children years 5 & 6 ish running through the bedding plants, clearly off the paths and playing with their guns. Couldn't believe my eyes.

The bear story reminds me of "Albert & The Lion"

Now Albert had heard about lions
How they were ferocious and wild
And to see Wallace lying so peaceful
Well... it didn't seem right to the child.

So straight 'way the brave little feller
Not showing a morsel of fear
Took 'is stick with the'orse's 'ead 'andle
And pushed it in Wallace's ear!

You could see that the lion didn't like it
For giving a kind of a roll
He pulled Albert inside the cage with 'im
And swallowed the little lad... whole!
Then Pa, who had seen the occurrence
And didn't know what to do next
Said, "Mother! Yon lions 'et Albert"
And Mother said "Eeh, I am vexed!"

So Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom
Quite rightly, when all's said and done
Complained to the Animal Keeper
That the lion had eaten their son.

The keeper was quite nice about it
He said, "What a nasty mishap
Are you sure that it's your lad he's eaten?"
Pa said, "Am I sure? There's his cap!"

So the manager had to be sent for
He came and he said, "What's to do?"
Pa said, "Yon lion's 'eaten our Albert
And 'im in his Sunday clothes, too."

Then Mother said, "Right's right, young feller
I think it's a shame and a sin
For a lion to go and eat Albert
And after we've paid to come in!"

YANBU, that kid was being a little shit and it's parents are the sort of knobs who'd also let their kid run around in a restaurant or kick the back of your seat in the cinema/on a plane. We ALL have to speak up against this sort of stuff.

On the flip side, A few years ago I took my little boy to Chatsworth house, the water falls and sprinklers were all going off and whilst he really wanted to play I told him he wasn't allowed due to other people also wanting to enjoy themselves, an older gentleman came over and explained that he heard my conversation with my son and actually he wanted to play in the sprinklers and the water fountains, I was still wasn't happy until he explained he was the duke of Devonshire and he lived at Chatsworth so my son had a wonderful 30 minutes playing in the sprinklers and fountains with the Duke. Im sure other people looked on tutting but my son and the duke had a ball. My son also sent him a couple of photos of the fun they had and also drew him a picture.

We ALL have to speak up against this sort of stuff.

I think people should speak up more - well done MadCats!

emmaloo that is so lovely

emmaloo That's hilarious - what a lovely story!

Many years ago I used to manage a Paintball site for a friend, and we would do special "junior days" for birthdays. We had very strict age rules (10 and up only), but there was always some mother wanting the birthday boy's younger brother to be allowed to play. I would encourage the parents to listen in to the safety brief, 9 times out of 10 that would be enough to shut the mother up!

We also had a rule that if any child was caught lifting their goggles out of the safe area they had to sit out the next game, and a second offence would mean no more play at all. I would get parents (again, usually mothers) complaining about how it wasn't fair as their precious child had just got a bit excited, and couldn't/wouldn't understand that there is a genuine chance of being permanently scarred or even blinded if hit in the eye by a paintball travelling at almost 300 feet per second. Excitement is one thing, but if they do it twice chances are they will do it again and maybe next time there won't be a marshall standing right by their child who can protect trhem (with the marshall's own body usually)

Actually is illegal to damage or pick flowers in parks or on verges.

Cultivated flowers Flowers growing in council parks are legally off-limits, as Errington's children discovered; the same goes for council-maintained displays on roundabouts or verges, any gardens planted by a particular organisation (ie community gardens), and nature reserves or protected land. And if you persistently snaffle daffodils from your neighbour's front garden, you could face prosecution for theft, as well as the sharp end of their tongue.

I do Hate self centred , over indulgent parents...sorry! The world is for everyone to enjoy, and I always taught all my children to be considerate, think of others and never ever damage or pick flowers in public places ...no picking except in your own garden with parental permission beforehand!!

It's parents like this who give us all a bad name.....

Bad behaviour yes, but tbh I would have been less comfortable with the older man "losing his shit" with a young family.

Not on the same levels as trashing Kew Gardens, but this is doing the rounds, and maybe taking the flowers was harsh as the damage was done, but this chap is so outraged his darlings can't pick daffodils intended for public display he films them being told off and puts it on social media!

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4352570/amp/Angry-father-films-police-officer-confiscating-daffodils.html

Says Mother's Day is now ruined -surely £1.00 from the local Tesco is not too much to ask!

If it's public then it's not for you to take / trash!

NoSquirrels - I thought of poor Albert too ... DM used to be able to recite it, and the sequel 'Albert's return' www.poemhunter.com/poem/albert-s-return/ ... which I think goes to show there have been questionable parents for a long time. 'Get your stick with the orse's ead `andle-
Go and see wot the tigers can do!"'

Another one: I was walking with my brother once in a churchyard where there are squirrels. All of a sudden two children came running up to one of the squirrels and tried to stroke it. . The parents were just smiling proudly. I was certain those parents thought a real live animal was cute like in the storybooks.

OP I have a 2 and a half yr old DS ... Going through a very "willful" phase and would quite happily barge around destroying everything in his path if he was ALLOWED .
Just as with my now 12 yr old and my now 5 yr old .... I will not give in and let them run riot. Public space is there for all to be enjoyed , and even though I pretty much sweat my (pathetic attempt) make up off and often have to move to a different area to enforce what I'm trying to teach him it still gets done .
Parents like that are a really bad example , and they give all toddler parents a bad name I'm the one with the toddler that's hulking out under my arm...but it's because he's being taught the meaning of No.
These parents should be ashamed . Fair play to the person that pulled them about it .

Middling - There was a report in The Darwin Awards which may be the same one (minor detail changes) - mother smearing jam on her child's face to get a photo of a bear "licking it off". She was, happily, intercepted by a park Ranger who gave her a bollocking. The Darwin Awards submissions are checked for authenticity and this one was confirmed, from what I remember.

Of course, one of the most horrible and dreadful incidents was that of the parents who balanced their toddler on the barrier around an observation platform over a dhole (African wild dog) pen at an American zoo a few years ago. The baby slipped and was literally torn apart by a dozen dogs in front of the parents' eyes.

(I know it's not quite the same, but it comes down to - my child wants . . my child gets . . . - and bugger the consequences)

I still remember the day, many years ago but still in the era where children were permitted to climb on restaurant seats with their shoes on just as the are today, when I looked out of my window to see a child pulling the heads off my flowers while the mother watched, and I clearly heard her say 'Don't do that, we don't pick flowers on the Sabbath'.

I couldn't get to the door, probably just as well.

Another time, it had been raining, I heard voices outside my front door, actually in my garden and opened it to find a mother and small child fiddling about with the pathway. Apparently the wet stones were fascinating and they see things we don't notice, so that makes it OK to wander onto private property obviously.

Last year I heard a commotion and looked out to see a group of boys from the local school on their way home. Except they weren't on their way home, they were fighting in my garden. I opened the window and told them to clear off.

And the boy whose mother walked into us expecting us to get out of the way in B&Q while her son kicked a toy down an aisle (not his toy, it was still there when they had moved off), barging everyone out of the way. She may have heard my comment about feral children, I hope she did.

Emmaloo , that is such a lovely, happy story.

I heard voices and caught 2 middle aged ladies picking them

I hope you took the flowers off them after you'd bawled them out! Cheeky mares.

So something else that's happened a few times is being "trollied".

Not in the too many sense but in the supermarket.

Young kids being allowed to steer the trolley in a packed shop with everyone nearby in fear of their ankles being destroyed...

I've had this quite a few times (and yes even in Waitrose ) and come away bruised and once even bleeding as someone's kid hurtles a trolley around at full pelt clearly unable to control it.

Stop the kids from pushing the trolley? Oh no - they are just having fun. Apologies for hurting someone? No, I should have got out of the way...

Emmaloo - what a lovely story!

I really can't understand parents who let their DC behave like that. Our DD is SN and essentially a teenager sized toddler. When we're at NT gardens she charges around but always within about 10 metres of us because that's what we've taught her to do. I actually can't imagine her picking flowers but then we've spent years drumming into her not to mess with plants. Not least because she eats them. (Privet was a favourite about 4 years ago) Just because they're SN doesn't mean they don't understand No.

I work in a toy shop. The things we see! Toys half chewed, ripped from packaging or ridden around the store. Potties whipped out in aisles. Window displays dismantled. Toys thrown all over. Parents just carry on chatting to each other or browse obliviously. Cue lots of ' Oh dear, let's climb out of the window' 'off the shelf, it's not a ladder' ' don't ride the scooters' from me, all whilst getting daggers from the parents. Don't get me wrong, we expect and try and help parents whose children tantrum because they're too young to understand they can't have the whole range of PawPatrol etc for their £2 pocketmoney, but some of it is ridiculous!

River I've not managed to get my plant pulling/eating child with sn to leave them alone yet but we don't take him to places where it would be a problem.

It's not the spoilt brat's fault- it's the stupidly overindulgent parents who are at fault! What message is this sending to the child- such signs are there to be disobeyed if you are having fun? Honestly it's ridiculous!