What would you do in this situation?

[TheLolaMontez]

Took 18m/o DD to soft play this morning, wasn't too busy. She was watching another child playing on a small slide. Other child got upset about this and hit DD quite hard and repeatedly on the top of the head.

I intervened told other child firmly not to hit and removed DD from the situation. She was upset but no lasting damage. Couldn't see other child's carer/guardian anywhere and they didn't appear when the incident happened.

I've never really been in this sort of situation before (first child) and I wondered what other people would do in that situation? Should I have found the guardian and told them what happened? Or does this thing happen all the time and other parents/guardians deal with it themselves?

I would have done exactly what you did OP

I’d have done the same as you too.

I'd say 'gentle hands only', remove my child and inform staff that a child who hit mine seems to be unsupervised.

You did the only possible thing I think!

Exactly as you did👍

All too often children are just released into softays and ignored unless they go back to the table. I am in no way a helicopter parent, infact my children are too old for softplay now, but Im a childminder and see this quite a lot. I would have done the same. If you can figure out who the parent is though, have a word.

I would passive-aggressively LOUDLY tell the child that it's very naughty and you don't hurt other children, hoping for the parent to overhear, but with no reaction from anyone, I would report to the staff.

I wouldn't report to the parents, if they don't care about their own child and happy to leave them unattended, they will care about yours even less.

You did fine OP. I would have made it clear to the other child that hitting isn't ok and left it there.

I think what you did was fine and I don’t mean this as a criticism of what you did today, but in future I would watch out for early signals that your child is doing something to upset another child to preempt such a situation happening.

Exactly what you did OP. A firm "We don't hit, it hurts and it's not very nice." to the offending child, and then remove my own for comfort and redirection.

Depends on the age of the other child. If another toddler I would do as you did. If a larger child hitting a little then I would complain to staff.

I would watch out for early signals that your child is doing something to upset another child to preempt such a situation happening

The OP's child was only watching the other child on the slide.

Don't see how the OP's child was upsetting another child.

Ime muttering 'you absolutely awful dc' under your breath is very satisfying after removal..

Not much else you can do.
I have done similar when my child has been hurt or other kids are blocking kids playing

I had similar recently. A child repeatedly kicking mine in the ball pit. She told him to stop. I tried the "be gentle" approach. He kept doing it. We moved. He followed. He went to kick her again. I got her out of the way and told her that he obviously wasn't going to stop so if he kicked her again she should kick him back harder. The mother magically appeared then and was horrified I'd suggest anyone would kick her child. So she obviously overheard the whole scenario and that was the point she decided to get involved.

@potter5 it all depends, we weren’t there to know, but if the child on the is told her not to watch or to go away then that would have been a sign to divert. I’m not condoning the other child’s behaviour or the fact that the parent wasn’t around and supervising but unfortunately both things are typical of soft play so it’s good to be prepared because nobody wants their child unnecessarily hurt and to not enjoy their time playing.

The other child was stood at the top of the small slide with one of those large foam/plastic covered shapes (don't know what else you'd call it?)
DD toddled over and just looked up at him and what he was doing. Within a few seconds he was hitting her.

She didn't do anything other than look at what he was doing. I was obviously not far away and was able to remove DD quickly. The only way I could have stopped it happening would have been if I'd have moved DD away from him as soon as she approached but I sort of want to encourage her to interact with other children.

I'd say the other child was maybe 2 and half ish? Difficult to say (I'm rubbish at guessing ages).

He didn't seem to have much in the way of speech, when I told him not to hit DD he just kind of scrunched his face up and protested with noise rather than actual words.

I would and have done the same as you. I wouldn't search for the parent/ guardian unless the child continued to attack mine.