Softplay Woman with 2 Obvs Under 3s

[Ozanj]

A woman with 2 obviously under 3s without any physical ability was taking them through the area aimed at Over 5s. Both kids had near misses with my son (that she didn’t notice) because they weren’t waiting their turns on the slide. I managed that calmly.

Suddenly she decides to wake up and shout at me when one of mine has a near miss with one of hers. I lost it at her a bit - didn’t swear - but told her quite loudly that the area was for over 5s and if her kids didn’t have the ability to keep up she should keep them at home. Told her she was a disgrace of a mother and that if I see her again in the Over 5s area I’m going to report her to the management.

obvs I shouldn’t have shouted but I was furious. DH (who wasn’t there) thinks I overreacted but I believe I was right (except for the shouting). Was I?

I think calling her a disgrace of a mother over a minor incident at soft play was an overreaction yes

She should keep her kids at home and is a disgraceful mother? You really said that? Yes you overreacted massively.

@MrsSamR 👍 agree.
Disgrace .. really? You’ve lead a sheltered life love.

A disgrace of a mother, really?

This didn't happen

Bloody hell, you over reacted a fair bit there.

Suddenly she decides to wake up and shout at me when one of mine has a near miss with one of hers. I lost it at her a bit - didn’t swear - but told her quite loudly that the area was for over 5s and if her kids didn’t have the ability to keep up she should keep them at home. Told her she was a disgrace of a mother and that if I see her again in the Over 5s area I’m going to report her to the management.

Telling her loudly that the area is for over 5s is fine in these circumstances.

This bit: if her kids didn’t have the ability to keep up she should keep them at home. Told her she was a disgrace of a mother and that if I see her again in the Over 5s area I’m going to report her to the management.

is wholly unreasonable and whether whispered, shouted or said in a furious hiss, is not ok.

This sounds entirely made up but on the off chance it’s real YABU (and a bit of a dick)

Reminding her that the area was for over 5s - completely reasonable
Escalating by getting staff member or telling her that she is putting her little kids in danger because big kids like to move fast - reasonable

Telling her she is a disgraceful mother and should stay at home is way OTT and you lost any moral high ground at this point.

Never seen an area for OVER any age.
They have areas for under5s but no restriction on the main area.
She was with them
Maybe your over 5s should be more aware of little ones?

@AnxiousRabbit

lots of soft play places have this restriction for exactly this reason, so the slightly older kids can run around climb in a way that is fun for their age group. If you allow your younger kids in there you have to accept the risk they might get knocked, hurried, 'helped' etc.

it's soft playing not scaling a rock face

@Ozanj YABU, very unreasonable. Aggressive & nasty, there was NO call for it.

that's the point of signposting areas as more suitable for older children - that younger children will struggle to use them as intended. It's not the responsibility of older children to take extra care (beyond what would be expected at these sorts of places) because younger children are there. If you're a parent taking your child into an area intended for older children, the responsibility lies solely with you.

You were really rude and hugely overreacted. You could calmly remind her that they were in the big area and she needed to go to the baby area if she wanted to avoid them being bumped into (although the same always happens in the babies/toddler area with older children running riot).
Shouting and calling her a disgrace of a mother was ridiculous on your part. If this happened - I really hope it didn’t!

You’re really nasty if you actually did call her a disgrace of a mother.

This is going to be a reverse, isn't it?

Christ.

Either this is true and the above has it nailed.

Or it's a reverse which automatically means YABU regardless of content.

I think you need to get a grip and also maybe teach your kid to pay attention to their surroundings. Dear lord it is definitely you that is the problem here. Who calls someone a disgrace of a mother for this?

It's soft play calm down.

Told her she was a disgrace of a mother and that if I see her again in the Over 5s area I’m going to report her to the management. this was absolutely awful of you to say. She's got two small kids she's probably doing her best. Who are you to decide she's a disgrace of a mother? Who says that. For what - going in the wrong play area. She's not injecting heroin into her kids.

What the fuck have I just read!?!?

You need to calm down and stop verbally abusing strangers

I'm saying reverse ... there's no over area, just under. By 3/4 mine could scale anything a 19 year old could manage (far too physical for their own good, and very small for their age, shame about the lack of talking abilities!)

This makes me soooo glad my children are now too old for soft play. What is a bloody near miss in a soft play. Could you have not kindly said perhaps her children would be safer in the under 3 area or that this area is for older children?

Perhaps she goes there during the week when school is in and didn’t realise it’s the school hols until she got there. I don’t know, but you were ott. Not saying she should’ve been in an area for older kids with her little ones but disgrace of a mother? Honestly bloody drama queen shouting at people in a soft play in front of your own children (and hers) I don’t think she is the disgrace tbh

Christ - why on earth did you react like that?! Bizarre and disproportionate

She called my son out of control and I saw red. Especially since until that point she was quite happy to be sitting downstairs while her toddlers were crawling upstairs unsupervised in the over 5s area