To think she should have waited her turn?

[Flaming0]

We were at the supermarket and DS (3) was playing in one of those car rides that are often found there. He loves pretending to drive the car, but is terrified of it moving and making noises, so I never put money in them (tried it once and he got scared).

DS had been sitting in the driving seat for a minute or so when an older girl (about 5) came up with a pound in her hand and pushed in front of him to turn the car on. When the car started moving, he leapt out of it and started crying. I told him to just wait a couple of minutes until the girl was done. But I thought she should have waited her turn. Even though she was going to pay for the ride, she could have waited a bit and I would have told DS to give the girl her turn. She shouldn’t have pushed her way in front of DS. There was only one seat in the car so they couldn’t have both used it anyway. Her parents were nowhere to be seen. AIBU?

YABU.

SneakyGremlins

Imagine if you wanted to pay for something at the till and the person in front of you just wanted to stand there and look at it?

grin "Ooh what a lovely till, I love the design!"

Oh brilliant. That has made me laugh out loud!😝

In the eyes of a five year old your ds wasn't using it though, because he hadn't turned it on. She wasn't mature enough to offer him an equivalent two minute sit in it. Also, she wasn't to know that your ds was scared. Most kids sitting in a stationary machine are delighted when another child pays to turn it on.... free turn. This was a misunderstanding.

Yes yabu, your ds wasn’t having a turn so she could have been waiting indefinitely.

SHE WAS FIVE.

And she was going to pay. Your son was hogging it up without paying.

But the again, in case you missed it. SHE WAS FIVE.

She is a 5 year old child. Why is there even a thread on the subject?

To give this the head space to contemplate even starting a thread is just odd.

Yabu.

I think I would expect my 5 yr old dd to politely say can I have a turn and let the previous child get off. If she’d done this I would say Yabu as you hadn’t paid. As she didn’t Yanbu and her parents should have been there to ensure suitable behaviour.

I would always tell my dd to get off a ride straight away if not paying and another child had the coin, but would also expect the above behaviour.

These are the sort of thing parents have to constantly remind 5 year olds about and why they need parental supervision!!

I think if you saw the girl with money in her hand approaching, you should have automatically taken your son off the ride, and then she wouldn't have had to push in.

I'm in the minority, but I don't think you were being entirely unreasonable, but your issue should be with her parents/guardians not the child.

As others said, she didn't bully your son off, so she's not totally out of order, but she is only 5, so you can only expect so much, she should be supervised and can only behave in the manner she's taught. If she's not being taught to wait and take turns then that's not really her fault. It's the out of sight parents/guardians.

I teach my child to wait to have a turn on things, even when they're not moving. It shouldn't matter that it wasn't moving, kids still find these things ridiculously appealing even when they're not! The paying customer should get priority. As long as you would have got your son off for her to have a turn it shouldn't be an issue.

Yabu..she paid you didnt. Simples!

the child should know not to barge in. could she not have said excuse me at least.

Also op...you would think you ds get a free ride

Some parents don't seem to realise children older than their precious little ones are children too, looks like you're falling into that trap OP. This happens loads in soft plays and parks. I realise that if you have a toddler, a 5 year old can seem so grown up but they aren't really.

Yep paying customer wins out. Mine liked to sit in them but if someone paying came along would move them

Also she may well have thought she was letting him ride

She didn't push in front of him as he wasn't using it.

Op YABU - on the grounds that the little girl was 5!!! I repeat...5!!!

Those pesky, bad mannered 5 year olds...I blame the parents

But when would it actually have been her turn? The pushing in front is wrong, yes. But a little child in there that isn't actually using money could stay there for ages and insist it's their turn. He has to get out at some point!

She couldn't have waited her turn OP as your DC wasn't having a turn. When she is a bit older she may well learn to say, "excuse me I wish to use this machine" but she is a bit small to have grasped this yet. Same as the till if you where at the gym and just standing on a treadmill but not actually making it move at all other people who wanted to use the machine would get pretty fed up quite quickly.

YABU she was only five and had money, she may have been waiting in the distance for a minute or so.

She didn’t push in front though, she pushed alongside. Not the same thing at all.

she could have waited a bit and I would have told DS to give the girl her turn.

As Judge Judy is fond of saying...woulda coulda shoulda

YABU. She was 5.
I have a 4.5 year old and she would have just assumed that another child would be happy to have a ride paid for them. She’d have thought she was being kind.
The only unreasonable party was the parents, who weren’t supervising.

And I agree with parents of younger children think that 4/5 year olds are grown up and should be able to do/think x,y and z, but they’re still little. They don’t get everything right.

Your son wasn't having a turn. He was just sitting on the ride, stopping other children from using it properly i.e. having a paid for ride. YABU.