Was IBU to not replace this drink?

[SoftPlayStandOff]

Soft play centre. Large one with different areas for different age groups.

I'm sat in the corner of the pre-schooler area - DS2 (4) and DS3 (2) are around and about playing. I stand up and look the opposite way to check on DS1 (7) and DD1 (10) who are elsewhere in the older kids section. When I turn around DS2 has a fruit shoot in his hand. I tell him to put it down, its not his. He does so and I think no more of it.

A couple of minutes later a woman comes up and tells me DS2 has drunk out of her child's drink. I apologise, say that i didn't see him drink it but I'd asked him to put it down when I saw he had it. She went away.

I speak to DS2 and he says DS3 handed it to him so he thought it was DS3's so had a mouthful. DS3 had picked it up from the middle of the floor in the middle of the soft play.

A couple of minutes later the woman's friend comes and asks if i'm replacing the drink. I laugh thinking she's joking and explain that I was sorry but it had been left in the middle of the floor and my toddler picked it up and gave it to his brother. She says again - 'well XXX can't drink it now its had his lips on it, are you going to by another?' I apologised again and suggested that surely a wipe with a baby wipe would be fine? She looks incredulous and says something about germs. I point out that its softplay - germs are everywhere and no, i was not replacing a drink that had been left in the middle of the room that my child had inadvertently taken a sip of.

Had this been a reverse I would have just wiped the bottle and let my kid get on with their drink. If i was the sort to be concerned by germs i would have not been at softplay or at the very least i would have kept my kids bottles by me (as I had done with my own kids bottles).

They proceed to bitch about it loudly until I left.

SO WIBU to not replace the drink in these circumstances?

Of course you should have replaced it!

Another vote for not unreasonable. I wouldn't have replaced it. I'd have thought that a mother so germ phobic would have monitored where her child drank their drinks/ate their food etc.
Pretty rude for them to bitch about you. Idiots.

Yanbu

Parents should insist kids keep food and drink on the table while they're playing.

Once my brother lost his car keys in a ball pit at soft play, they fell out of his pocket. If a 2 year old had found them, presumably you all reckon the child was within their rights to take the car for a spin?

You can't seriously be this dense! I'm genuinely shocked anyone could be so stupid. If my toddler picked up the car keys while I wasn't looking and they broke that would be your fault for losing them in the ball pit - that's completely different from taking a car from a spin. The first could easily happen because no one watches their child every second while in the ball pit the second would never ever happen.

Likewise If you dropped your glasses in the soft play, left them lying around on the floor and my toddler accidentally trod on them I'm not paying to replace them because it's your fault. If I found a drink on the floor of the soft play (where it shouldn't be in the first place) I would chuck it in the bin before it made a mess and I wouldn't pay to replace it. No one should have to watch their toddler every second in a play place incase some idiot leaves food or drink lying around on the floor!

Once my brother lost his car keys in a ball pit at soft play, they fell out of his pocket. If a 2 year old had found them, presumably you all reckon the child was within their rights to take the car for a spin?

Do you think a toddler would be able to grab the keys, leave the ball pit, find the car and take it for a spin in the two minutes his mum's eyes were diverted? No? Then it's not the same. By your logic if I brought myself a bottle of Moet set it down in the ball pit and a toddler tipped it over the mother of the toddler should be responsible for replacing it.

If I seen my child had drank somebody else’s fruit shoot I would probably offer to buy another out of courtesy BUT if another child had drank out of my child’s fruit shoot I would not expect the parent to buy another nor would I approach the parent about it. It’s a drink, they cost like that £1. That’s just me 🤷‍♀️

Drinks shouldn’t be on the soft play equipment anyway and kept on the table.

Moments like this is why I hate soft play. An incident with a fruit shoot here. DD ran off with her drink and I went after her to catch her as she would get told off for having it on the play equipment which I understand obviously but.. as I went after my clumsy DD she tripped fruit shoot went flying and got the floor wet. Another child stepped on the wet floor before I had chance to wipe it up. The other Mum gave me shit because her daughters socks were wet. Joys of soft play 😩🤣

Of course YANBU. You can't abandon your stuff in stupid places and expect it to remain there in perfect condition. If she couldn't afford to replace the drink she should have taken better care of it. It annoys me when parents let their kids take food and drink into the soft play. There are clear signs telling you not to and it invariably gets spilled.

Who knows how many other children had drunk from the bottle before the OP's child had a sip?

lol you are not being unreasonable the responses really have made me laugh!

if it was on the floor, your child's spit was probably the least of that drinks concerns.

What would your reaction have been if this happened the other way round? If your DS3 (age 2) put a drink down in a random place (and I have a grandson age 2 so know that's what they do) and another child picked it up and drunk it?

It's nothing to do with germs. It's more the fact that he's drunk a drink that wasn't his … regardless of how much he took.

I would have replaced the drink seeing as she clearly had an issue. But if another kid had swigged out of my child's cup then I wouldn't have made a fuss...some people just have different things that matter to them!

What would your reaction have been if this happened the other way round? If your DS3 (age 2) put a drink down in a random place (and I have a grandson age 2 so know that's what they do) and another child picked it up and drunk it?

Any normal person wouldn't have allowed their toddler to bring the drink into the soft play. If my child put down a drink on the floor of a play area and it got spilled/knocked over/thrown in the bin/drunk. I would think it was 100% my fault for not watching where my kid put their drink. Only a massive CF would expect the other parent to pay for their child's mistake.

@nuxe1984

Surely you as the parent are responsible for not letting your toddler put their stuff down in random places? If you're not watching and they bring their drink into the play area (where you're not allowed food and drink) and they put it on the floor that's totally your fault right? Why would you blame someone else's kid for doing what toddlers do in an area for toddlers when you were at fault for allowing the drink to be where it shouldn't have been.

yanbu! if you are anal about your child's beverage receptacle you keep it zipped away between sips. basic.

Surely you as the parent are responsible for not letting your toddler put their stuff down in random places?

You are also, as a parent, responsible for watching your children and making sure they don't take anyone else's food or drink. Especially a 2 year old!

You are also, as a parent, responsible for watching your children and making sure they don't take anyone else's food or drink. Especially a 2 year old!

Don't be daft. I wouldn't expect there to be food or drink in a soft play area because you're not allowed to bring it in. A soft play area is designed to be a safe place for kids to play and not need to be watched every second. If you are stupid enough to leave drinks lying around ON THE FLOOR of an area where drinks are banned you can't complain if they get messed with. Some common sense is required!!

You are also, as a parent, responsible for watching your children and making sure they don't take anyone else's food or drink. Especially a 2 year old!

If you're in a cafe you should stop your 2 year old picking up random drinks and food in a soft play area you can reasonably expect people not to leave food and drink lying around so you shouldn't need to watch your 2 year old as carefully. That's the point of a soft play - kids can run around without their mum right there which they can't do in a cafe.

You are also, as a parent, responsible for watching your children and making sure they don't take anyone else's food or drink. Especially a 2 year old!

Errrrr no! A soft play area isn't a restaurant I shouldn't have to make sure my 2 year old doesn't drink stuff because there shouldn't be stuff their to drink. If anything OP should be annoyed that some woman allowed her kid to leave a dirty bottle lying around which her DS then drank from.

@nuxe1984

Your entitlement is crazy. You think OP should watch her child extra carefully to compensate for the fact that you are so lax at watching your own child you let them bring the drink away from the table into the gated soft play area and put it down on the floor.

YANBU. The drink was in an unattended area, not on an occupied table. They were pretty much asking to have it taken.
If it had been swiped from their table by DS3, that's when I'd agree to replace it

No you shouldn't have replaced it. It was on the floor. Some kid had already been drinking it when your toddler decided to have a sip I'd have been more worried about the germs that your toddler would have got from the other kid. I'd have told her to get fucked but that's just me.

This is a thread that just keeps on giving

You're all making assumptions that the soft play area was gated and that drinks weren't allowed. Some are but I've been to soft play where this isn't the case.
If the OP's DS3 is in the habit of picking up random drinks and drinking from them - my grandson does this, in fact, if you don't watch him he'll take biscuits from other children's hands! - then yes, you watch them more carefully than you would normally do for other children. Didn't have to worry about this with GD as it was never a thing she did.

YANBU. You should have complained to CF about her child leaving his germ-ridden drinks where your toddler could pick it up.

I can’t believe the other mother was sufficiently cheeky to approach you. A fruit shoot is lower infection risk than the coins that paid for it. Just daft. If you don’t want a small child to pick up a drink put it on the table. What was their child doing wandering around with a drink anyway.