Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Unflip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Unflip

1 2

AIBU?

to be annoyed at park-keeper for chucking out 12 year olds for being too old

46 replies

bakerslovecakes · 03/08/2009 18:25

I've just got back from walking the dog in my local park, whilst i was there i stood near the swing park to look for any mums i knew, anyway i heard shouting coming from the park-keeper(an elderly women) telling 2 girls (aged about 12) to get out of the swing park because they were too old. They were'nt shouting or making trouble just having fun. They left and sat out on the grass next to the swing park looking quite puzzled. There is no sign saying an age limit and i can understand that maybe in the past she may have had trouble with teenagers but should she assume that all teens are out to cause trouble. My dd is 13 yo and sometimes she still goes to the swing park with her friends that doesnt mean shes going there to get drunk or cause trouble. This women just annoyed me.

OP posts:

Report

GrapefruitMoon · 06/08/2009 19:35

Round here lots of the playgrounds have signs up saying under 11s only - there's one near our school where the local secondary school kids used to ignore this and hog all the equipment after school and be there in such large groups that little children felt intimidated. They have now put more stuff in an adjacent area for the older ones which has solved the problem.

I do find that if older kids are in a playground in a group there is a greater tendency to litter and use bad language as they start showing off to each other [old fogie emoticon]

cat64 · 06/08/2009 19:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

troutpout · 06/08/2009 19:29

Jesus, when i think of what my generation used to do and get up to, from the age of 10 upwards.... and the sheer freedom we had.

troutpout · 06/08/2009 19:27

The woman is insane...and yes i would contact the council.
I feel so sorry for teenagers and indeed anyone over 10.Noone wants to see any child over the age of 10 doing anything anywhere these days. It's like we just want them to disappear and reappear as adults.wtf are they supposed to actually go or do?

nappyaddict · 06/08/2009 19:13

Saying that I was feeling a bit (sick not envy) at the 2 teenagers who were straddling eachother on the swing next to DS today.

abraid · 05/08/2009 22:15

Basically children aren't allowed to do the things they're supposed to do. Like, erm, move around.

OrmIrian · 05/08/2009 18:33

Thanks stench. Just posted my own AIBU about his. Am so cross. Not to say bemused

stenchtrench · 05/08/2009 18:28

I was at the park last week wen a POLICE woman questioned groups of kids took all their details and made them sign somethin. the kids were only 12-14 and doing nothing wrong, a couple of boys went to play footie on the field and she told them to leave the whole park.

I was with my 2 LO and my nephw an his 2 friends but she didnt say anything to us. I would have been fucking furious if it were my kids.

what is the world coming to???

OrmIrian · 05/08/2009 18:14

And just to prove a point re older kids, DS#1 and his mates have just been 'moved on' by the police They were skating at the back of the soon-to-be-demolished swimming pool. The police told them jocularly that they were 'cleaning them up'. And when they asked were they could skate they were told 'that's not my problem'. There are no places left where they are allowed to do this now.

What can I say to him? It seems that he is less troublesome to society plugged in to his X-Box

screamingabdab · 04/08/2009 15:32

If a teenager is behaving badly in a park, I will (usually) have a word with them about it. Most of the time I get the required result. Often they are just being lairy and thoughtless (just as younger children are).

I agree with OrmIrian that there are not enough play ares for older children and teenagers.

And I don't have teenagers myself, but I do see that teenagers are still children.

nappyaddict · 04/08/2009 11:53

That's ridiculous. 12/13 is still a child - as in who parks are intended for!

hmc · 04/08/2009 11:46

"Do you think i should contact local authority or is that taking it a bit far?"

Yes, and no it isn't taking it too far

mumeeee · 04/08/2009 11:34

The playground in our local park is split inyo two areas one for little ones and one for children up to the age of 14.
Thee wasb't a sign up at the OP's park and these girls were using the swings sensibly so the park keepr should not have thrown them out,

ilovetochat · 03/08/2009 21:37

our park is for under 10s.
yesterday there was a boy of about 12 riding his scooter down the slide and skidding upto the baby swings, very dangerous. there were also 2 teenage girls sitting on the swings, not causing damage, but they were talking about smoking weed and shagging the boyfriends so not pleasant.
if we were lucky enough to have a parkkeeper i wish they would tell them all to get out the kids park, you cant throw some out and leave some in so they have to chuck them all out imo.

GrimmaTheNome · 03/08/2009 21:29

What they need is a park-keeper (or community police officer) on duty in the evening/night when there are drunken/drugged louts (of either sex) about. Not someone officiously moving on inoffensive 12 year old children playing.

Satsuma1 · 03/08/2009 20:35

Tbh I can understand the park keeper's reaction.

Unfortunately teenagers have been known for misusing these facilities in parks around the country (I can't comment specifically on yours of course) and that's why decent teenagers like the ones you saw get asked to leave. I can't take my DS (18 months) to our local swing park because at 10am on weekends, it's full of pissed, passed out teenagers covered in vomit. Everything is covered in graffiti and generally it's not a very pleasant place to be.

So I don't think YABU to be sad for your DD and other decent teenagers, but I do think YABU not to see that the park keeper had a good reason to move these girls on.

Tortington · 03/08/2009 20:35

park keeper! am impressed

GrimmaTheNome · 03/08/2009 20:27

If there was no posted age limit, then these pre-teen children, behaving like children, should have been allowed to continue playing. Frankly even if they were over an arbitrary limit, so long as they were playing nicely I don't see why they shouldn't. I must admit to regularly using the swings myself and occasionally a zip-wire and I'm 48

Anyone behaving badly should be kicked out.

It makes me sad when I read old stories - Little Women, Anne of Green Gables etc where children are children until 15 or 16 - that we don't allow for this now.

MollieO · 03/08/2009 20:25

Ours has an age limit, can't remember what it is although 14 rings a bell (there is a sign). If I see children that are older then I will ask them to leave. They have the rest of the park to 'play' in rather than being in the youngsters' area trying to break the equipment. I am sure that there are well-behaved teenagers who wouldn't try and use equipment that is patently too small for them but just not in our local park.

BonsoirAnna · 03/08/2009 20:22

I don't know about this. I was at the park one day when the children from DD's school were there, at the sandpits and climbing frame. At DD's school there is a policy of not taking children over 6 to this area.

Another school group was there - children who were at least 10. They were jumping up and down like gorillas on a roll, and ended up doing severe damage to the equipment within about 5 minutes - damage that has sadly never been able to be properly put right and now that play equipment is spoiled forever.

OrmIrian · 03/08/2009 20:21

I wouldn't mind. Of course it depends on the children. My eldest loves skateboarding. But there is nowhere set aside for him. The council has recently dug up the informal skateparks - the dips and hollows and little mounds that the boarders and the BMXers used to use. And they everyone whinges about them doing it anywhere else My experience is that if kids are busy with the things they enjoy - be it skating or BMXing or any kind of sport - they aren't hanging around smoking and winding everyone up. But as I said earlier there is so little provision for older DC.

MovingOutOfBlighty · 03/08/2009 20:18

I totally agree, they should have their own part of the park. Problem is, who would want to live near that bit?

OrmIrian · 03/08/2009 20:17

Well of course. If they misbehave it's a no-brainer. Whatever their age.

MovingOutOfBlighty · 03/08/2009 20:14

That is the thing OrmIrian.
It is not like parents of young kids don't often have reason. As said, ds nearly mown down by them.
Some cherb faced girls also came to the park two days ago, stuffed their faces with family sized chocolates and crisps (and they didn't even offer them around) , swore, fagged up on the swings then left leaving behind enough litter for a landfill site.

We live in a 'nice' area and when I asked them politely to pick up the litter they told me to fuck off infront of my dcs.

sickofsocalledexperts · 03/08/2009 20:11

I'm with parkie. I get sick and tired of bloody teenagers in children's swing parks, hanging around trying to be cool for each other, swearing, and playing their music loud. And all the adults are always too terrified of getting stabbed to tell them to fuck off. IMHO the teenagers are taking over the streets because we are all too scared to put them in their place. Recently two ugly-arsed boys of about 15 were playing with a real cap gun in our kids' playground. Wish we had a parkie to tell them to go and play gun games elsewhere.

Unflip

1 2

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.