To dislike it when crowds of rowdy teenagers gather in parks designed for SMALL children?

[poshsinglemum]

I know they are bored and don't have any youth clubs to go to and blah de blah de blah but I felt intimidated when I took my dd (15 months) to the park today.
There was a tiny group of three teenagers but they were throwing around a litre bottle of coke which was spraying everywhere and they found it HILARIOUS.
Thay were making a lot of noise for a small group and there were loads of tiny tots around.
Why can't they bugger off to the skate park and leave the liitleuns alone? I would have said something if I didn't think i'd get stabbed. . If they must then do it at night. Not in the day with teenies around.

[OrmIrian]

Ha! katiestar - that is so true The littlies playgrounds are always deserted if there is a bigger one available. There is one in a town near us (not in ours, God forbid ) and the toddler playground is coralled off with fencing - but no-one uses it anyway apart from the very occasional LO with parents in tow.

But it does make you think - if a small child was hurt because of a collision with a teenager who would be to blame.

[katiestar]

Our council have built a few 'playgrounds' for 14+ with challenging climbing equipment exercise bikes etc.And you know what ? Its always full of littlies who think it looks more interesting than their own playground

[fruitstick]

actually PSM are we going to the same park or is this some kind of new teenage hobby?

[fruitstick]

I finally realised I was a grown up a few weeks ago when I reprimanded some teenagers for skinning up under the slide in the under 12s playground.

They grumbled and did nothing until I put my stern voice on and then they shuffled off!

I don't object on the whole to teenagers in the park but when gangs of them are kicking litre bottles of coke across the climbing frame, landing a few feet from my 3 year old I do get a little irked.

[breastsofjordan]

It's like a dinner party. You have the whole downstairs yet everyone hangs out in the kitchen.

[smoking2shoes]

tbh I think they don't realise one day their babies will be teens.
I prefer teens tb, at least they don't play in the street screaming and shouting.

[Goblinchild]

I think the mummies here are thinking of those play parks with notices on them saying
'Not for children over 12' and the like.
Discrimination, because there are rarely other locations that provide an opportunity to do those things for over 12s that don't involve payment.

[hercules1]

I agree with deadworm. Parks are for teenagers too.

[Deadworm]

My 14yo often goes to the park with his friends. He is a child, albeit a big one. They play football, climb on the goals, make a lot of noise, hang out awkwardly in mixed-sex groups for the first time. It is his place as well as a small child's.

So long as he isn't aggressive or unpleasant to anyone (he isn't), other people's anxieties about him are their problem not his. Teenagers have as much right to public spaces as younger children.

[Goblinchild]

We've got a common where everyone hangs out during the day, and the teens at night in good weather.
They need somewhere to go and be with friends, and most of my daughter's mates hate skateparks. The vast majority of teens round here are lovely, bit thoughtless on occasion but respond well to requests.
What do all the parents of mn littlies plan on doing with them in another decade or so?

[oneofakind]

it is such a shame that there are not more 'cool' places for teenagers to go. we too have had intimidating experiences over the last couple of years in our local 'royal' park playground and have had to call the parks police several times (usually when the teens start damaging equipment/spraying graffiti/get really aggressive). we currently have no swings as they were constantly vandalised.
most times its loud swearing/chasing etc. which irritates me when tiny tots are around and sometimes get bowled over or the teens get too excited in the sand pit throwing sand and everyone gets it in the eyes. i often ask politely for them to stop and consider the children and mostly they do but occasionally i have been sworn at and threatened which makes me really sad and angry. i wish that our local council could provide a skate park/general hangout place for them (and a bit of extra supervision).

[zebramummy]

i think mums need to start setting up playdates again for their teenagers rather than their younger children who can, er...meet at the park

[mumblechum]

Thankfully ds isn't interested in hanging round the park, prob. because it's a 10 mile round trip to the nearest one.

He's doing band practice tonight at a mates house (reg. Friday night thing) & other nights is out rowing, at gym or doing karate.

I agree, kids, especially boys, who don't do formal sport have got to have somewhere to go and not all parents are happy to have half a dozen lads in their house troughing throught the goody cupboard like a plague of locusts

[southeastastra]

my ds(16) was going out tonight to hang around the park - it has lit up astroturf - but it's raining.

he wouldn't gather in a children's park during the day

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

barbarian - it wouldn't let me cat you - says you have it set up so mners can't. I'll try tomorrow as I'm about to go and wallow in the bath.

[mollyroger]

god, I am so sorry for the appalling typing in my last post - I really should stop and check before I post....

[Slambang]

Our town doesn't have a skate park or a challenging adventure playground or a public access football pitch.

If there was SOMETHING then teens in our town wouldn't congregate at the very pleasant kids' playground.

[Morloth]

Try talking to them and being nice. The teens at our local are excellent. They help the littlun's and push the swings and chase the 5 year olds and make the roundabout fly so the centrifugal force means the little kids are horizontal they and are generally very nice indeed.

[mollyroger]

actually astrid, last time i was in stratfored on avo, there was a fantastic park by the river, with play equipment designed for tots right up to adults. There were gangs of teend having the bet time on zip wires and good challenging climbing frames.
One of the troubles of this country is we stop catering for the recreational needs of children as soon as they hit 12, in effect. Unless they are into formal sport.
They cannot go to soft play, or play parks, there are no holiday clubs etc etc.
We stop catering for them, and they just hang round in packs, in malls or open spaces. Fo some teens that is enough. But many, I suspect would love to be somewhere safe, doing something fun.

I worked at a small music festival in the summer, int he children's area. We had so many teens coming, and shyly asking if they could do face painting, junk modeeling, jewellery making, cicrus skills etc

[Astrid28]

Mumblechum - come on, how many teens are really into slides & roundabouts?

They just want to hang out somewhere, and there are more suitable areas within most parks that they could hang out when smallies are using the park.

[Astrid28]

Maybe the councils should designate areas solely for the use teens & pigeons??

YANBU - I hate it too. I don't hate teens, I just hate them hogging the park.

[mumblechum]

Agree with Orm.

Also, the skatepark thing - not all teens are into skating, prob. 75% aren't.

[OrmIrian]

slam - I think teenagers are difficult for people to be with because they are not one thing nor the other. Stuck in the middle. They are conflicted about it (iirc ) let alone other people. I personally think we should make allowances for them as we should for small crying babies, pregnant and hormonal women and parents with huge buggies

[Slambang]

Squishabelle - 'Teens can be angels at home'
'I am sure that most parents 'think' that their dcs are being polite, respectful etc etc when out with friends. Reality can be very different.'

You seem to be implying that teens should somehow not be allowed out in public.
What exactly do you think teens should be permitted to do in their free time? If they are never to be allowed out without a parent watching when will they ever become independent adults?

Of course I will be keeping mine locked up in the future until the ravages of puberty are passed in case they upset somebody in a playground by being large and ungainly.

It seems so sad to me that if somebody made a blanket statement ' I hate children' or 'I hate women' or ' I hate people from Belgium' everybody would be piling in to accuse them of prejudice and discrimination. Yet somehow we can read comments such as 'I hate teenagers' and 'I don't like teenage boys' without it being commented on.
Teengagers are just middle-sized people. Some are nice, some are not.
Just like toddlers, women and Belgians.

[barbarianoftheuniverse]

OYBBK
Yes, I think you can! I think I have just set it up. Thanks

Either of my lovely teens might have been mucking about with that coke bottle too, and both would have moved away at a friendly 'Buzz off a bit further.' As would any of their friends.