Going to a playground without children?

[CantWaitForOctober]

Just watched a video on Facebook of a woman confronting another woman who entered a playground and sat down without having a child with her. The woman was shouting at her asking her why she was in the playground if she doesn't have any children with her. This happens a lot where I am adults will come and sit down in the playground on the benches. (To be clear I am referring to a children's playground gated with swings and slides etc not a park with loads of grass and benches) although this isn't something I would do personally AIBU to think this is ok and she shouldn't be confronting her and recording her? Lots of people in the comments agreeing with the woman and saying she was right to confront her.

People can sit wherever they want in a public space. If I have to tolerate children in pubs and gyms then parents can tolerate an adult sitting on a bench in a play park.

I think it's a bit odd...I wouldn't confront someone though... especially a woman. She could be waiting to meet a friend or relative with kids.

If its the only space with benches then its not strange. I might raise an eyebrow but if you are with your kids and they are safe, there's nothing to say. Let the woman enjoy her day

Aww there was an old lady who did this where we used to live. I talked to her once in a while and she just liked to see the kids play. I think she was pretty lonely. People always just assume the worst.

Why confront and film a woman for simply sitting on a park bench.
My Nan used to sit and watch the children playing in our local park. Thankfully she never met with suspicion, just mums happy to chat with her about when her children were little.

Not weird they could be waiting on someone. I wouldn’t do it personally as I hate taking my DC to the play park so am unlikely to want to visit it myself.

I do think that parents are right to be vigilant about people who are around their DC but not in that manner.

Near where I live women sit in the playground with out kids and read their books no one bats an eyelid. It is gated

If that’s where the benches are, that’s where people will sit 🤷🏻‍♀️

Depends on the circumstances.

When things opened up around covid, we were at a playground close to the London Eye. A man was doing a workout but more resting a lot while taking up a piece of the kids play things and filming himself. He wouldn’t move so children could use it. We called the police. The police came and took him and his phone off with them.

I often sit in the playground opposite my house with a book because it's the only place that gets sun and I don't have a garden. No one's ever said anything.

People are a lot more wary of unknown adults around children these days.

DH told me how an old man used to come and sit on a bench to watch his PE lessons (which were done in a public park). Went on for years before someone noticed he wasn't just watching but "fiddling" with himself while watching. They thought he was watching for something to do.

It’s a public space, not bound by any privacy laws 🙄

I would find it weird if this happened in our local playground as there are many benches in the park that are not in the playground area but I wouldn't say anything unless they were doing something strange.

My auntie had her only child taken from her at birth and adopted (teenager, Ireland,
1970s, granny made it happen, fucking evil). She would always choose the seat where she could see the children playing.

People can sit where they like. The only tables in our park are inside the gated toddler play area. Adults sit there all the time. Sometimes grown ups go on the swings too. The horror!

The song Aqualung is specifically about a paedo that used to do this in Cambridge. I don't think it's ok. I'd be more tolerant of a woman than a man but I wouldn't completely let her off the hook because some paedos are women too. There are also organised child snatching gangs that eye up kids and could be picking one whose parent was less attentive to snatch at a later date. People just aren't streetwise enough if they think this is always safe and fine. There's also the adult baby/adult child fetishists to watch out for who can be male or female. There are so many reasons why everyone should have their spidey senses tingling if anyone without kids is at an enclosed play park while kids are on it, but I don't think aggressive confrontation is necessarily the right answer. Just an awareness that it's not perfectly safe just because the person in question has a pair of tits and maybe a word asking them to leave or a phone call to the police if it became obvious they were actually causing issues. I'd much rather people saved the confrontations for the arseholes who take their dogs inside the park enclosure (whose feeble defence is always "he's friendly").

It's sad we live in a world where the most innocent action is viewed with suspicion. Personally I couldn't think of a worse place to sit but maybe I am just a miserable old buggar 😂

I guess I am use to it, my local park is on a main road, adults often walk past then come in and sit down on a bench. Even sometimes take my kids there in the evenings and there are adult couples swinging on the swings with no kids 😳

It is sad to think the worst of everyone. They could have been meeting someone or remembering someone they lost perhaps.

I once took my nieces to the loo during a swimming session and when we got back, my poor husband was feeling like a real creepy weirdo because we’d left him on his own in the baby pool

I agree. Watching children play is very likely to be an innocent pleasure. Though not to everyone's taste, as you say.

🤣 at your husband @SpikeGilesSandwich - not laughing at him, I mean, it’s just the baby pool is so warm and comfy and what a shame that his 10 minutes to wallow there were spoiled!

I wouldn’t like it and I think people are being really naive about this.

The more I live in the world, the more I read and see and hear, the more I just know how many pedophiles walk among us. And far too often they are, purposefully or by accident, protected.

In this instance, if these are the only benches in the park I would be on to the council to provide other benches outside the playground.

There are playgrounds near me that specifically say “no adults who aren’t accompanied by a child”.

The song "Have You Seen Her" by The Chi-Lites has the words:

"One month ago today
I was happy as a lark
But now I go for walks
To the movies, maybe to the park

And have a seat on the same old bench
To watch the children play, huh
You know, tomorrow is their future
But for me just another day

They all gather around me
They seem to know my name
We laugh, tell a few jokes
But it still doesn't ease my pain"

Sad that any proximity of adults and kids is viewed with suspicion now, but I guess that's where we are ☹️

I agree completely 💁‍♀️ public place. Anyone is allowed on a bench

Our local playground has signs up saying adults basically have to be with a child to enter. No unaccompanied adults.
There's a park around it for everyone. The playground is for 12 and under and their minders.