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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Was IBU to not replace this drink?

422 replies

SoftPlayStandOff · 10/04/2019 15:25

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?

OP posts:
Lamkin · 10/04/2019 16:27

I definitely wouldn't have replaced it.
It's a discarded fruit shoot for god sake, not an unopened bottle of Moët!

PitterPatterOfBigFeet · 10/04/2019 16:28

OP YADNBU. Like PP have said you leave stuff in the toddler area of the soft play especially on the floor it will be man handled!

downcasteyes · 10/04/2019 16:28

I don't think you're being unreasonable. Kids don't understand property. They tend to break, borrow, bend and ruin objects. It's just what they do. It's probably best if everyone accepts that they are all about rough and tumble and that objects are going to be less than pristine in their presence. Sometimes it's better to suck up a £2 loss than to be an arse.

NightmareDaemon · 10/04/2019 16:29

Definitely NBU - the other mother should not have allowed her child to take the drink into the play area.

Original poster
SoftPlayStandOff · 10/04/2019 16:29

reastie I didn't laugh at her exactly, it was a sort of laugh/huff/snort reaction as i genuinely thought she was joking about the replacement. And I did say 'i'm sorry i wont be replacing it and I have no more money with me anyway'.

OP posts:
StuffYouAllInTheCrust · 10/04/2019 16:29

Absolutely wouldn’t have replaced it. If the mum was that bothered about germs she would’ve made her child leave it on the table.

PopCakes · 10/04/2019 16:30

YADNBU the whole point of the soft play area is that you can leave your toddler without keeping your eyes on them every second. As long as they're not hitting/kicking/snatching anything goes. If the woman leaves her drink/sunglasses/entire marks and spencer picnic on the floor there it's her own fault if it gets ruined.

pepperpot99 · 10/04/2019 16:30

OP if you were a half decent parent you'd have trained your dc to shun sugar and E number laden fruit shoots in favour of mountain water from the organic springs of Wales, packaged by hand in non plastic containers. You reap what you sow Wink

Barbie222 · 10/04/2019 16:31

I'd have given her a quid, not sure if I'd have bothered to q for a drink for her though. I think I'd have been a bit more disgusted that my child had picked up and drink from an abandoned drink, sometimes these things are abandoned for a reason!

Original poster
SoftPlayStandOff · 10/04/2019 16:31

reastie the laugh response was because she was on about germs - at soft play - to me that is laughable and it genuinely didn't enter my head that someone would be fussy about germs when they are at a massive softplay. it took me a second to realise she wasn't joking which is when i apologised again and said the above to her.

OP posts:
ScreamingValenta · 10/04/2019 16:31

YANBU. The drink was lying on the floor.

Walkerbean16 · 10/04/2019 16:33

My DD took a fruit shoot off a table at soft play and had a sip, i immediately offered to replace it. Id say thats pretty normal?

SalmonFajitas · 10/04/2019 16:35

YADNBU OP!

There's always some entitled idiot at soft play. I remember once there was a 6-8 year old in the toddler area (which explicitly said for 2 years and under) spending hours making a big tower out of the huge soft blocks, my DC (about 1.5 at the time) rushed passed it knocking it over. The mum stormed over to me and said I should have kept my toddler away - I could see her son was building there. I explained I had actually kept him away for 5-10 minutes but I'd paid to use the soft play and this was the toddler area where her son wasn't allowed to be in the first place. Why should my son not be allowed to run around and play? She stormed off in a huff to speak to a member of staff then left.

Waveysnail · 10/04/2019 16:36

If swiped from table then yes. Abandoned on the floor then no. Iv no idea why idiot parents let their kids wander around soft play with food and drink.

YouLikeTheBadOnesToo · 10/04/2019 16:36

I would have offered to replace it, to be polite. BUT if it had been my child’s drink I wouldn’t have expected you to.

SalmonFajitas · 10/04/2019 16:36

My DD took a fruit shoot off a table at soft play and had a sip, i immediately offered to replace it. Id say thats pretty normal?

Yes that's normal but not what happened here. A table is a perfectly reasonable place to leave a fruit shoot and expect it to remain in a drinkable condition. The floor of the soft play is not a place you should bring a fruit shoot let alone leave it there and expect it to remain with untampered with! Bit of common sense surely!

gamerchick · 10/04/2019 16:37

My DD took a fruit shoot off a table at soft play and had a sip, i immediately offered to replace it. Id say thats pretty normal

Yes that is. If it's left in the middle of the forbidden floor then it's fair game.

PoppyD93x · 10/04/2019 16:38

Why weren't you watching your child? Id never let my child drink from some scabby fruit shoot on the floor. If you were watching in the first place it wouldnt have happened.

NoseyBuggerMummy · 10/04/2019 16:39

My DD took a fruit shoot off a table at soft play and had a sip, i immediately offered to replace it.

Do you seriously not see the difference between leaving a drink on a table and bringing it into the soft play area (where there are always no food and drink signs) and leaving it on the floor? You seriously don't see the distinction?

VladmirsPoutine · 10/04/2019 16:39

This is definitely going to be in the Daily Mail or the Sun before sunset today. It literally has all the hallmarks. Take a bow OP.

JE17 · 10/04/2019 16:40

YANBU I would definitely not ask you to replace the drink under these circumstances. I would be telling my own DC not to take their drinks into the play area.

HarrysOwl · 10/04/2019 16:40

If you were watching in the first place it wouldnt have happened

If the other mother had been watching her kid, it wouldn't have happened.

MumUnderTheMoon · 10/04/2019 16:40

YABVU in my opinion. If I had been the other parent I wouldn't have asked for a replacement but if I were you then I would have replaced it. It doesn't matter to me but I am not so self centred as to assume there is something wrong with the other persons feelings on the matter. Wise up entirely.

MadSweeney · 10/04/2019 16:41

Nope, I wouldn't have replaced it either.

Original poster
SoftPlayStandOff · 10/04/2019 16:41

poppy as i explained, my two other DC were in the age appropriate area of the soft play and i had stood up and turned around to check on them. i spent the entirety of our visit sat in the toddler soft play section but i did have to check on my other DC too.

OP posts:
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