Child height restrictions at theme parks and play areas.

[Lizzie888]

Why are theme parks and play areas so strict with their height rules and not show a little more understanding and empathy with younger children who are tall for their age. Our holiday has been spoiled by unsympathetic establishments who have stuck strictly to height rules when in some cases the rules are nonsensical. Our DS is nine but tall for his age at 59 inches. He has learning difficulties, not major, but has a mental age a year or so younger. We faced many difficulties at theme parks where he was too timid to go on the rides for older children or adults but was turned away endlessly from younger child's rides even although it was one to a car and no direct interaction with other children. We tried to finish our holiday by visiting an adventure playground. We paid the admissions for DS and our younger two children only to fall foul of the maximum height rule again. We then had the problem of whether to deprive the younger two their fun (they are far rougher playing wise than their older gentle 'giant' brother or to let them in and sit outside with DS. On this occasion we allowed the younger two in and tried to console the older one with a walk and an ice cream. We did ask around some other adults/parents and found that some kids as old as twelve were in and the general behaviour was very much rough and tumble as you would expect in an adventure play area, nothing too extreme, and far rougher than our DS would have added to the occasion. On the other hand some of the language of the older kids was sweary and inappropriate for such an area and when pointed out to the staff was met by a shrug. So why do nothing about that, allow twelve year olds who play like twelve year olds in because they are a few inches shorter than DS but not admit a child based on age alone and circumstances described to them. The fall back excuse is always 'health and safety rules' a pathetic cop out used by lazy, ignorant staff unable or unwilling to use any flexibility/discretion. It is heart breaking to see the effect is has on DS just plain heart breaking.

Oh dear

The staff don’t have flexibility because it’s more than their job is worth. The HSE rules are in place to make the rides secure. There has to be a cut off point

It's about safety. If he gets on a ride he is too tall for then he might be injured.
Remember Tyre Sampson? He fell to his death when he was allowed on a ride he was too heavy for. The rules are there for a reason.

I don't think I've ever been to a playground with a maximum height limit! If it's such a reoccurring problem for you, why don't you do a bit of research in advance and go to one of the numerous playgrounds that doesn't have height limits?

I also don't think I've ever been to a theme park with a maximum height limits on numerous rides. Which themes parks are they?

YABU to expect the people running the rides/playgrounds to override company policy though for obvious reasons. By all means contact the company and raise the issue with them. It's obviously not the person just doing their job at the gate who is to blame.

Staff should never ever flex health and safety rules at their own discretion.
i understand your frustration but you do not want a minimum wage school kid taking judgements on what’s safe and what isn’t. It’s important to have strict unambiguous rules.

As somebody with a short child who missed out on friends birthday parties etc when he didn’t meet heights for go ape or whatever I do sympathise but it’s up to you to research ahead and try to avoid these situations.

Rides with height restrictions have them because the ride hasn't been tested outwith these heights and they cannot guarantee the safety if you don't fall within the height range. I can see why it feels unfair and why you feel bad for your DS, but honestly I doubt you'd want to risk his safety anyway.

Do they let adults in to help the younger children? I tend to let my eldest be the parent to my youngest in those situations as I have mobility issues.

Those are the maximum/minimum safe heights for the ride and going on outside of those limits puts you at risk of death. The safety tolerance on rides doesn't really care if little jimmy really really wants to have a go - it cares if little jimmy will die or not.

I've never seen a kids ride with a maximum height as most allow adults on to help. It really should be up to the parents I.e to short for a roller coaster so may slip out of the harness = no. To tall for a soft-play frame so may hit his head on padded bar or have to crawl under something not a problem he will figure it out.

We have gone health and safety mad it's normal to get hurt occasionally. DH and DS are tracking a lightening storm so they can go out on the quads in the rain once it's passed, that is more dangerous than being slightly too tall for a play frame! I'm sure DH's risk assessment stretches to helmet and back protector the rest will concern getting mud all over the car when they get back in!

The height rules will be because of testing or insurance. Your son may be well behaved but the venue doesn't want to be sued if he suffers an injury which wouldn't happen if he was shorter.

The staff will prefer that there's a blanket rule than forced to listen to stories why someone should be exempt. They are not paid enough or knowledgeable enough to know why a ride would have a specific restriction. Nobody wants to face the guilt of making the wrong call and someone getting hurt.

The height rules can be odd though. There's a roller coaster track that is essentially copy and pasted across different theme parks. In the US DS was tall enough to ride it at 2 years old. In Europe he's still not tall enough to ride it at nearly 4.

YABU
There are rules that staff will not over-ride, for good reasons.

I've not seen max height in the UK, whereabouts was it? I've seen max age for children and min height and used to get looks from people when my DC went in the eg under 8 section.
There may have been implied heights by having a bar across at head height eg on slides in play parks but they just learnt to duck!

Aberdeen Beach Pleasureland

Ahhh the memories. I am tall. I vividly remember a family trip the the American Adventure theme park which ended in the manager’s office and my dad demanding a refund.

I was about 5 or 6 (late 80s early 90s) and had gone into the the kids soft play. I was dragged out by a member of staff and told off for being ‘too old’ to be in there. My parents questioned this to find that I wasn’t ‘too old’ but ‘too tall’. I think they were mostly mad at the way the staff member spoke to me.

We then discovered that I was too tall to go on any of the rides designed for children my age. I was too short and too young for any of the ‘big’ rides.

Im sure I’ll face the same with my kids who are both tall for their ages. We’ve been to a few soft plays that have height rather than age restrictions. Mostly I’ve said to my kids that they can play on it though they are technically too tall until told otherwise. In all cases the height seems to have been used instead of age.

Bullsh1t, the rules are nonsensical. For example why only a height restriction why not weight and before anyone takes issue I am not advocating a weight restriction. Sitting in an open car on a ride with no head restrictions where is the H & S issue there where the next child in another car could be an inch or two shorter but weigh much more? Stupid over the top H & S rules are one in the many things that has caused our dear country to go to the dogs. Also even if I accepted the points regarding rides (and I have been to many a place with a mixture of minimum AND maximum height restrictions) why do they apply to adventure playgrounds with climbs, swings rope ladders etc. etc. And if it is H & S rules why are they so inconsistent. Exact same parks have let in kids of my DS size and taller many times. There are many a free council run playpark where kids youths even adults clamber about in the equipment. Do H & S rules not apply to them. No you are wrong the rules are overbearing, plain nonsensical in some areas and policed by jobsworths with no common sense working for unfeeling insensitive employers.

Did the places you visited not have the information about height limits online for you to check before you went?

Weight is not the issue in regards to lots of rides though, they're generally made to facilitate more weight then they'd likely ever need to. Height can be important as it means the safety buckles and mechanisms won't fit properly, that someone's legs will be crumpled in a way that is unsafe in case of an accident (like when people put their feet on the dashboard of a car) or that there are things that could be collided with if someone is taller than tested. Sure its very 'over safe' and these scenarios are unlikely, that's better than the alternative.

Maybe I'm not looking carefully enough, I've only noticed minimum height and minimum/maximum age restrictions (both of the latter are largely ignored apart from shooing bigger kids out of baby areas when busy. Maximum height in a soft play is nonsensical, adults go in most of them with the little kids who want more challenge.

Don't most smaller rides allow parents to ride with their children? In which case the height restriction obviously makes no sense. I have a small child who isn't tall enough for even the small rides which has meant she's missed out on things that her younger cousins can do. I do sympathise, but the height restrictions will be there for a reason if the parents aren't allowed to ride either - the staff get paid minimum wage. They really don't get any say in the height restriction and they likely can't afford to lose their jobs over it. As for play areas in parks, does anyone actually enforce those? The amount of older children who have terrorised my youngest and stopped her from playing - to the point that we no longer bother with several larger parks - makes it seem like nobody actually bothers checking who's playing on the equipment.

We have gone health and safety mad it's normal to get hurt occasionally.

Hurt occasionally, fine.
Chasing a lightening storm would be outside of most people's comfort zones, I'd imagine, in terms of risk/reward.
Falling out of a theme park ride because you don't fit properly is potentially fatal. It's not a theoretical risk, it's a real one. It's happened.

If there is an - unusual - maximum height; it's there for a reason.

Also the theme park will be thinking in terms of: even if there's a 1 in a million chance of a child of a certain height being severely injured or even killed in an accident that's a chance of having to pay millions in compensation and legal fee's - its far, far cheaper to simply not allow children of that height on at all. Does that make it any less frustrating for the child? No. But that is the rules the theme park has put in place.

It's either safety, or they employ staff just to deliberately annoy parents and upset kids because they are bored and easily amused and parents don't know how to say no to children

At an open playground in a public park it is completely your choice as a parent to let your tall child play on the small climbing frame and your problem if he bangs his head on a low bar. At a theme park ride, the person supervising the ride and the theme park management team are responsible for any injuries occurring with people who tests have determined as being too tall to ride safely. Why should they risk losing a job / being sued / having to live with the guilt if someone is seriously injured because they listened to a sob story or gave in to a pushy parent who insted they were a special case? They would rather your son goes home disappointed than any of that (quite rightly).