Who was in the wrong here, if anybody?

[mumofthreebutmoretocome]

There's a small playground next to my DC's school. After school it's always packed with Primary aged kids, particularly so when it's sunny. There is a small sign stating the playground is for 7yrs and under. However kids of all ages frequent it particularly at that time, and have done for years.
There was a incident earlier on when an older child (8 or 9) fell of a piece of equipment, accidentally, and knocked over a small child (about 1.5-2yrs) old. The small child was not hurt, but cried. The older child says sorry and that it had been an accident. The dad of the small child then told off the bigger child saying he needed to be more careful, turned and said the and to the parents there, then stormed off. He was clearly furious. The older child then got upset as it was just an accident, he hadn't meant to make the child cry.

Was the older child (and their parent) in the wrong because he's too old to be in the playground, even though there are loads of kids over 7 in there at that time simply because of its vicinity to the school. Or was the dad, because despite it being packed with bigger kids as it is at that time every school day, he brought his smaller child along (pre 3.20, it would have been v quiet)?

Neither child is mine, btw, though my kids were there and are both younger and older than 7!

Technically the dad was right but realistically if there’s a playground next to the school the kids are going to go there, so I think, rightly or wrongly, the onus was on him to either keep a closer eye on his own child or not go there at school kicking-out time. Which, if he’s got any sense, he won’t anymore. And the older one will keep a better eye out for little uns. Lesson learned and no real harm done.

That's what I thought, really. It's crazy in there at that time so I never took my small ones in at that time. Though in theory I could have booted all the bigger kids out!

I think if you take your child to a pkayground, you can expect tumbles and falls. This incident happened to be by an older child, but would there be any difference if he was slightly younger? You say the park sign says up to age 7, some 7 year olds are very tall, so the child you think is nine, could be in the right age range.

I think this Dad was overreacting. It was an accident, the older child did fell off himself. You always need to keep a very close eye on 2 years old in a playground.

Dad was a knob.

7 is a ridiculous age is try and cap it at ffs. Whoever came up with that shit idea is the unreasonable one

Ivana yes I think so too! Accidents happen, and he could see that there were lots of excitable kids bigger than his but just let him wander off. I don't like helicopter parents but in this situation, you need to stay pretty close.

I mean, he only told the kid he needs to be more careful... Which he probably does. I say the same to my toddler when he falls over. So I don't think telling the older kid off was unreasonable in itself.

That said, he didn't need to be "furious" if it was just an accident and everyone was unhurt. He's probably projecting because he wasn't parenting as well as he should have been himself.