To want to tell the local addict to step away from the kids?

[dilemmaemmaemma]

There was a classic multi substance addict hanging out in the park yesterday. Can of cheap beer in hand, gaunt, toothless, incoherently chatting to themself, I don't know their name, so let's just call them LA. LA had a speaker playing fairly loud music, and my 3 year old and her friend went over and started dancing to the music and running rings around LA. LA seemed to genuinely be enjoying the fact the kids were enjoying the music, so it was kind of harmonious. Me and the other mum kept trying to tell the kids this wasn't the right person to play with, but they kept running over. Eventually I went over with the kids and I really didn't feel comfortable getting too close to LA, and didn't want to strike up conversation because they were just to in their own world and I didn't know what would happen if I tried to chat. So I told the kids we were going to play musical statues and took them back to where the other mum was and played a game with them there and that kept them from running back to LA. I genuinely wanted to have a word with LA to say I don't want my kid playing with a stranger who is clearly not sober and could they listen to their music elsewhere. Am I being unreasonable? And what could I have done differently to keep the kids safe and not be a jerk in front of LA?

You always know that they are high though

So everyone that drinks cheap lager outdoors is a danger to children?
Should public spaces only be occupied by people with clean bills of mental health?
Only mums and small children? But what happens if some of the mums were 'addicts'?

Well then obviously they should give the junkies free range because clearly the children of drug addicts are of no value.

You are BU. How about instead of "chatting" with another parent, occasionally calling the two 3 years old to stop dancing with the "addict" or however you phrased those shouted instructions - you and the other parent actually actively parent YOUR kids, neither your nor your child or anyone has any "right" over a public space regardless of if its a "child's play park".
You are a nasty and judgemental person and you are now starting to teach the same bad attitude to your 3 year old. YOU should be with your 3 year old at all times supervising outwith your own private and locked garden/home. No further discussion on that topic.
Now to address your spiral of nasty comments. First post was all very generic unthreatenting and vague - then as people rightly call you unpleasant, you start heavily implying LA is potentially a child predator. You are truly a shameful creature, not only are you and the other parent lazy and to busy socialising - whilst your 3 year olds wander around unsupervised, but you are willing to fabricate danger AFTER recounting how benign the interaction was - AFTER being told you are judgemental and unpleasant. Interesting turn of events after the fact.

Can't stand parents that group around chatting whilst their children run feral with zero supervision in public spaces and its somehow everyone else's problem.

Free range? People suffering from addiction are human beings, not zoo animals.

Go to a different park and Report the addict.

Report them to whom? and more importantly - for what??!!

Drug/ drink abuse in a public space. OP referred to "addict" Very different from someone enjoying a picnic in the park with an alcoholic beverage.

It didn't sound like they were actually drinking/using though, just that they were there.

He (or she as the OP couldn't tell) wasn't doing anything wrong. The police wouldn't be interested.

To be fair dancing with them is a better than them being aggressive and yelling obscenities. I think it's antisocial to play loud music in public, but I wouldn't approach someone clearly intoxicated to ask them to turn it down. Unless they were the one repeatedly approaching you, then I don't think you can reasonably demand they ignore your kids.

Drug/ drink abuse in a public space. OP referred to "addict" Very different from someone enjoying a picnic in the park with an alcoholic beverage

That doesn’t sound like the situation though. OP did not indicate they were drinking/taking drugs, but that they were playing music. When challenged on how they knew it was an addict they said didn’t know, which would indicate they may not have been, otherwise the answer would have been ‘because they were drinking/taking drugs. With playing music and dancing when children went over to hassle them/play with them, I’d more think mental illness personally as a sane person would have politely told the kids to go away and stop bothering them.

@ThePhantomoftheEcobubbleOperai think your non viable answer demonstrates my point rather well

Women are more likely to kill a child

Should we treat all women as a threat too?

Well yes. If I had a bottle of wine at home and then staggered clearly drunk but bothering nobody into my local park, what crime have I committed? If it's a no drink zone that means drinking in public not generally being a bit pissed (or fucked up or whatever)

Awaits OP to come back saying he was swigging White Ace and lighting up his crack pipe in the park

I genuinely don't understand what your argument is here - could you expand?

Ok knock yourself out, you go and ask this person to go somewhere else, I'm sure they will oblige. Let us know how that goes.

But it was your kid who ran up to LA not the other way round, you really are a piece of work.
In an your world all "unseemly people" would just be disappeared, but we live in the real world and I have no idea if LA is a danger or not ( some very nice friendly looking people can be dangerous and some homeless can be fine) it's up to you as a mother to teach your child to do as you ask, if not you should take her hand and lead her away, if my child danced around a well dressed man with a briefcase sitting on a park bench I would still call or lead them away. As for reporting, report what?

Is your name "Karen"? 🙄

'free range'?! They're human beings FFS.

Has nobody you care about ever suffered from any form of addiction?

Why are you implying all addicts (not that anyone actually knows whether that person is an addict or not) are a danger to stranger's children and shouldn't be allowed to sit in the park?