AIBU to make this girl cry??

[mumzyof2]

Its not so much of an AIBU, but more of a, was I in the wrong.
I went to a Wacky Warehouse today with my son. We go quite a bit as in the area where the children play, theyve made a very nice relaxing coffee shop, so I take a few magazines, and let my ds run around for a bit.
Anyway, we went today, and it was quite busy as some of the local children had broken up from school at dinner and gone there. There was a group of 7 mums, and between them, they had about 10 children.
My ds is 2 years old, but will be 3 on Sunday.
After a while, I caught a glimpse of somebody being pushed over, and it was my ds
I got up straight away to see what was happening, and on my way there, this girl of about 7 years old was pushing him over, over and over again, it happened about 6 times. And it was actually pushing him right right over onto his back, from standing. When I got to ds, he really didnt know what was going on, and looked very confused as to why he was being pushed over.
I asked the girl if it was her pushing him over, she said yes. I asked 'Why?' she said because he was running around them. He's only 2 ffs! ( I didnt say that!) I was very angry so probably sounded quite scary, but I wasnt certainly wasnt shouting. I told her not to, as hes a lot smaller than her, and that if she did it again, Id tell her mother. Then she started crying!
As I started walking away, she said 'Excuse me, I am very sorry' but I just carried on walking. All mums know its not nice to see their children being picked on, especially by one twice their age. I didnt mention it to her mum, and neither did she. I dont even think she was in the room at the time. I felt quite bad afterwards because she cried, although that wasnt my intention. Was I out of order to get so mad?

to the OP - i would have done the same...

her tears and apology came just a little too late.
she was obviously just upset that she had been found out!

what she was doing was cruel.

my kids aren't perfect (2,4,7), but they know when they are being horrible to each other and just 'sorry' doesn't cover it!

hugs and kisses for your LO.

I think YANBU, children say sorry as a way to get out of trouble, I think she thought that if she said sorry, you wouldn't tell her mum and then she wouldn't get into (more) trouble. Maybe not but in my experience (21 years as a nanny) kids hurt other kids, say sorry so there is no come back and then do it again, it's like if I punched someone on the nose, then said oh I'm sorry and the victim said, oh that's ok, she apologised. It wouldn't happen, I would have to take the consquences of my actions, children need to learn this too!

I do think it wuld have been good for your son to have heard her apology as long as she seemed like she meant it.

On a more positive note, I took my charges (aged 3.5 and 16 months) to soft play today, I sat in the under 3 area with 16 month old and older one went of to play in the big play area and he found himself two friends, who helped and looked after him for an hour, they were both 9. I thought that was very sweet, I told them and the 3 year old that they were very nice boys and my charge said "Farmer Christmas will be very pleased with you and bring you lots of lovely presents" thought it was sweet that didn't even think to dissillusion him!

ummm what is wrong with wacky warehouses?

YWNBU. I hope she's learnt a valuable lesson. More important to give your little boy a cuddle to make HIM feel better. At 7 she should know better, and hopefully does now.
Addicted - doesn't sound like a threat at all!! Sounds like trying to get her to empathise with the little boy.

Good thing you didn't accept her apology. She was probably apologizing in fear of you telling her mother not because she felt bad.

You did kind of accept her apology in a way as you didn't actually tell her mum. So it worked from her point of view.

I was just thinking the other day how nice it was that at 4 ds could go on the big kids park and sort out his own problems without me trailing around after him and I could sit on the bench and just observe him interacting with other children.

WW need to work harder to keep the different ages apart really. I've only done soft play once (a birthday party which ds was invited too) and I kept him out of the under 3 area - but I certainly wasn't keeping a massive eye on him when he was in his own age area.

YANBU at all. Agree with other posters that in an ideal world you would have acknowledged her apologies but I understand why you did not.

We have this problem too in our local soft play. I appreciate that 7 year olds don't need the same level of supervision that 2 year olds need but they certainly need some and certainly the parents need to be making sure their children are only in the appropriate age areas. I've stopped going as a result.

In our local Ikea there is a play area in the restaurant. My ds1 (nearly 2) was playing there and 2 boys of 3 and 4 were hitting him round the ankles with a toy and trying to trip him up. I was mad but really taken aback as their parents were witting right there overlooking the play area and did NOTHING! I told them not to do that because it could hurt him in a very firm voice (whihc they did respond to but no apology). Wish I had been firmer and told their mums but to be honest I was a bit taken aback.