To think that parents should be proactive to teach their children about waiting their turn in the playground?

[spokette]

My DTS are 3yo and it really annoys me that when I take them to the playground and they are using equipment, other children come along and literally bully them off the equipment whilst their parents stand idly by watching them.

This happened again on Saturday and the child in question was about 2.5 yo. He would not wait for DT2 to climb the ladder in order to go down the slide. His mother stood there and said nothing so I said to him "Wait a minute, good boy" hoping this would prompt the docile doormat to intervene but no. So I helped DT2 up the steps quickly and once DT2 came down the slide, I moved him onto another piece of equipment.

This happens all the time. I have taught my boys to wait their turn when it comes to using playground equipment and if I see them trying to push in, I intervene immediately. Why can't other parents do the same or am I expecting too much? I know that children this age tend to barge in but at some point they have to be taught the ancient arts of sharing, taking turns and heaven forbid, patience.

Grrr!!

Completely agree. It's 'cos so many parents couldn't give a sh*t these days. These will be the same parents who trampled over each other to get into the Primark sale...

Take turns, share and be nice are the basic lessons in life I agree and we all need to reinforce this to our kids - unfortunately it seems to take an awful long time and we just have to keep drumming it in.

Maybe for this mum for this day, for whatever reason, she just didn't say anything. Doesn't mean she doesn't reinforce message at other times or that she doesn't give a s**t. It just so blardy hard and boring to keep on, somestimes, you let an incident pass. I know I have.

I agree, I sometimes take my nephew (5yo) to the park and he is very good at waiting his turn. However he is often bullied into hurrying off stuff, he's pretty small for his age and other kids just trample all over him. I often see parents just sitting chatting not paying the slightest attention to thier kids and what they're doing. The worst ones are those that see it happening and don't tell thier kids to wait.

Well done you for being so patient with the other kid.

i do agree but i teach my son manners he is 2.6 but all children at this age go through stages of not being patient as they dont really understand

if it was an older child then i would fully agree but children 2-3 i am a little bit more patient with as its not bullying its excitement

my son is well raised but will always go through stages of being impatient they are still young

as they get older there understanding will become evidant to how they have been taught

i become protective of my child too and dont like other children pushing him but when you watch even your own child will do this at times dont let it bother you

This annoys me too. Esp. when the parents don't say anything. I see this attitude continue right through school. I have watched (apparently delightful) parents sitting by as their eight-year-old son pushed mine out of a queue.

I used to find it was the other parents deciding that my child had had enough time on the equipment and would be telling her to "share" (ie get off that now because my kid-who is so much more important than you- wants to get on)

I taught all of mine to wait their turn but I don't think I'll bother with this one, since no-one else does. My teens stand dociley in queues while other people push in and shove them out of the way. We live in a very Me society

I know that very young children can be very impatient and it is instinctive for them to just barge in. However, time and time again, I have to endure this whilst the parents of said children are witnessing what they are doing and do not intervene. If I had not been viligent on Saturday, the little boy would have pushed DT2 of the ladder. His mother should have intervened and I don't care if she finds it hard/boring or whatever - she is responsible for his behaviour. If they don't intervene now, when are they going to?

That's horrible! Mine seemed to have taken the lesson on board with no difficulty whatsoever and luckily we've had few problems with other children that haven't. There are always one or two of course but mine seem to be able to stand up for themselves (or more often for their little brother) when that happens.

The worst thing that I've ever witnessed was when some overly precious mother decided that her DD needed the climbing frame all to herself because she was so nervous and kept all the other children off until her DD had cautiously clambered from one end to the other taking about 10 minutes. Not so much as an apology or a direct explanation just 'now come on darling, I'm sure the other children won't mind just letting you play on your own as you a bit nervous aren't you darling?' in a loud voice, whilst blocking other children's access and hissing at them like an angry swan. Did I intervene? Of course I didn't because I'm a coward. Did my children complain? No because they are too polite - they just shrugged, looked pityingly at the pair of them and walked off to do something else.