AIBU to tell my DDs to move away, Man in park playing with no children.

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AIBU to tell my DDs to move away.

Today at our local playground lots of children playing. There was a man with no children, driving a childs remote control car around. The play equipment, At one point my DDs started to follow him into the skate park, to watch him. AIBU to have told them to play somewhere else?

Of course he could have been completely fine minding his own business, and there is no law preventing an adult playing in the park with a child's toy car.

That's just odd of him.

How old are your DDs? I would have gone with them to watch as they were interested.

I would’ve done the same. Taking a remote controlled car to the park is one thing, but actually inside the playground amongst the equipment? Weird.

You could've stood there and watched with them i guess

How old was he? Like a young man, maybe a teenager who looked a bit older? Or a fully grown man.

But as long as your weren't unkind about it, yanbu At all

I would have done the same as you

Elsewhere in the park OK, but around the play equipment feels off. I think you did just the right thing Op

YANBU. What’s more important - hurting this man’s feelings or looking after your kids? He could be harmless or he could be predatory, either way, you don’t know. Best just to be with your kids while they play.

For context my DDs are 9 and 7, I wasn't rude I called them over to me after watching them for a few minutes. He looked to be in his 20s.

You'll get some comments saying this is overcautious, and in the old days it used to be normal for unrelated men to be friendly with children and show off their toys to them, what's the world coming to when we're suspicious of a man being friendly with our kids, and similar nonsense. A pp just above this one says "as long as you weren't unkind".

It's a nope from me.

Another chestnut I expect to read on this thread: "but children are more likely to be abused by a man they know". Yeah, that's because it's easier to identify weirdo behaviour in strangers. As op has done

I’d be side eyeing this a bit. It could be perfectly reasonable (better ground, a lot of adult RC enthusiasts, etc.). At the same time this is a classic lure technique.

Normally I think posts like this are OTT but yeah I think you were reasonable.

I'd have kept an eye, but I'd have let them watch.

There aren't that many suitable places (large hard surface without acrual cars) to use a remote control car, a playground seems suitable and DC would enjoy watching.

It's probably just a good place to play with his car, but if you feel uncomfortable there's nothing wrong with acting on that.

i wouldn’t have been overly concerned about him , but no harm in keeping an eye on him/ your daughters.

Not unreasonable at all.

There might be no law against an adult playing with his remote control car in a play park, but we have societal norms which we all generally understand and abide with. What he was doing was clearly odd and guaranteed to raise an eyebrow.

Protect your kids and never apologise to anyone for it.

He could have had learning difficulties, and parks are public places.

You possibly did the right thing, maybe that was some kind of instinct, or it could have been a total over-reaction - we'll never know.

My lad is nearly 20 and IF he were interested in a RC car like this, it wouldn't be that odd for him to be using it in a play park. I don't paedo from a young man playing with a car.

I guess when your kids get to that age you will see them differently. I remember when my DS was a toddler, i thought 5year olds were animals.

I have a suspicion the huge increase in anxiety in our current generation of young people is, at least in part, down to the way they weren't "trained" to have any interaction with anyone outside their immediate family.

I have very fond memories of going to the park with my Grandad and chatting to the men with the remote control boats. Yes, if a man wanted to be up to no good with children, that might be a good place to go, but we were with Grandad, who stayed close. What was going to happen even if the men did have evil intentions? Meanwhile we learned to chat comfortably with adults we didn't know well.

I probably would've gone over and watched with them. I don't see any issues with you calling them back though.

I’d have probably gone to watch with them, or at least kept a close eye on them, but my 13yo nephew is 6’ tall and can grow a beard and my oldest son is following in those genetic footsteps so I would probably bias towards thinking it was just a kid playing with his car. If it were a more middle-aged man then definitely would call them to me.

I see the point in possibly being over cautious, however this is a playground just off the main road, in a small town not usually a place where Adults walk around. Unless taking a short cut We go there most days after school in nice weather etc as we don't have a garden at home. It's not something I see. Something just seemed off to me IDK.

He has a remote control car (perhaps he built it himself) and was driving it in a public place (perhaps he has no garden) no big deal. Honestly are we now all banned from parks because our kids are grown up???

There's a young chap in our village, same age my DS1 (26) with learning difficulties. When DS2 was in Primary, he would often be at the park after school on his go cart or remote control car. Controlling the car around the play equipment is more fun than just running it over the grass.

He would engage with the children and meant no hard. That said, parents/carers would keep an eye - not for predatory behaviour, but more unpredictable or just inappropriate.

He has most definitely benefitted from the "it takes a village" adage as everyone knows him and accommodates his needs.

I’m guessing from some of these comments you would be thinking we were up to no good because on a whim I bought a kite, it’s fun, gets me active and I like doing it, if I want to fly a kite at 50 so what!

Yes learning disability likely here.