Random man trying to offload child

[Pokemum24]

My children and I (two DC age 16 and 11), are staying with friends who live in an estate surrounded by other families. As soon as we arrived I heard a voice asking where we were going and who we were visiting!? A man ran over and pointed at his daughter, aged 11 or 12. He asked where my children would be hanging out, and whether they would let her join. He seemed to imply that this was entirely the girl’s idea, though she didn’t seem very enthusiastic!
I told him who we were visiting (my friend, and their child) and he said he was friends with them and would send his daughter over in 10. I just smiled, a bit perplexed tbh.
We went in and started to settle, but not even 10 minutes later the man had returned, child by his side, ready to join us! Like wtf!?
It really seemed as though he was trying to avoid looking after his child. I felt so sorry for her! Am I being unreasonable for thinking that this is completely unacceptable? Why does this man think it’s ok to offload his child onto any woman he sees with similar aged kids of her own? The blokes never even met me before, why does he feel like his kid is my responsibility and I’d be ok with that!?

I’d be worried this was a distraction technique and he was trying to nick something. Did he seem dodgy? Other than obviously trying to send his child off with a stranger. Did your friend have a response? She must know him if he lives nearby.

What a strange thing to do. He's happy to leave his child with complete strangers. I think a call to SS wouldn't go a miss,
Please tell me you told him to piss off.

I was similarly shocked when a woman did this to me recently. Haven't they heard of safeguarding?! I was on the verge of saying something like i wouldn't be so trusting, but let it go in the end. Kid aged 4

Why on earth did you give a stranger so much information about your children and where they were staying?

I know!! It’s like pedophiles don’t even exist to them. 4 is shocking!!

Hmm good point! Hadn’t even considered that!!

Really bizarre as well as cheeky.

Did your friends actually know him at all? What happened after he’d said this?

I wish I had now! I wasn’t sure about my friend’s relationship to them and was completely taken aback

This is probably normal on the estate.
This would be weird as anything where we are now but I've lived places where it would be normal in the holidays to just palm your kids off onto adjacent families and everyone just got on with it.
Assume the family who's house it was seemed ok with it? If so, then not much to worry about I'd say, probably doesn't want her sat at home on a tablet all day.

There used to be a single dad in the flats where I lived in London 25 years ago. He was always doing this. Admittedly we all knew him (but mostly because of the child palming.)

Odd that he approached you rather than your friend if he knows them. Maybe he's already worn out his welcome there?

I think single dads are often treated as useless and offered tonnes of help that single mothers would never be offered and then they come to expect it,

I know what you mean but he wanted his daughter in the house, not in a park or communal area. My friend also found it strange after we told them the story!

Absolutely!!! The difference between single mums and dads is astounding!

Did your friend know him at all? No way I would have accepted responsibility for a random child I don't know. I would have just firmly said, no sorry we have plans and closed the door on him!

There's a Dad local to us that does this.

I agreed to look after his kid 'for an hour' that became 3 hours before I knew what he was like!

Every opportunity he gets, he palms the poor kid off so now we have to make our excuses as soon as he starts with the 'will you be here long?' when we bump into them at the park as we've got wise to him fucking off and leaving the kid with us for an unspecified length of time.

He was most offended when he asked my other half to watch his kid once and my other half said 'no!'

The child is hard work so I get why he does it but he only has one kid to look after but expects me to look after his hard work child plus my own!!! What makes him think that it's ok to pile that level of work on to me?

He's an utter chancer.

I was on holiday in a French resort years ago with my dd who was about 4 and one day at the pool she befriended a little French girl of about 3. Next day dd was playing outside, then she came in and said that the little girl's dad had left her to play and gone off! The girl started to cry for her dad, she spoke no English, we spoke no French and we had no idea which appartment she was staying in. We searched the whole place while she became increasingly hysterical and eventually found him sunbathing on the nearby beach. Cheeky fucker.

It might sound far fetched but could he have been encouraging her to steal from the house. With you saying he wanted her in the house and not at a park etc.
I know of someone that encourages their children to steal from homes they visit, shops, school etc.

That’s awful! These poor kids!

Wow, yeah I guess it’s a possibility, that would be so horrific for the poor kid!

Shocking!