Softplay, telling other people's children off........

[posieparker]

I rarely brave these places anymore, too many lazy arsed parents not watching their children, but today I did. Cue child crying for ten minutes before I found her mother, sat texting not watching her two-three year old, then another little girl who was no more than two was terrorising other children. She scratched my friend's child's face which bled in three places and then rammed babies/toddlers with a ride on car, hard. One of these babies was my 15 month old.

I found a member of staff and complained, my friend took the child by the arm and told her off. Now I think she should have either found her parents or a member of staff. Retrospective telling off of someone else's child is not on and can get you punched! what would you have done?

I don't know about tell off, but I will usually say "That wasn't very nice was it" and look as scary as possible, not hard it would seem.

The toddler/older kid problem does work both ways though. Older kids shouldn't be in the baby bit and babies shouldn't be in the older kid bit (unless you [and they] accept that they probably will get knocked down at some point). DS has always wanted to climb way above his age appropriateness and I will usually let him, but he learned pretty early on not to whinge and I certainly wouldn't have told off an older kid playing in the older kid bit if DS was somewhere he probably shouldn't have been.

LOL at supervising 6yos, would love to know how people think this is possible. Ours is 4 stories high and designed for said 6yos, I don't fit - there is an emergency staircase on the side, but that is for well emergencies not helicoptering.

Hi everyone!
I took my 3 yr old DS to a party at a local soft play area this past Sunday and took my dd (18months( also.
As its a huge play area, I tend to have to go round and round it with the kids to make sure they don't get stuck or older kids don't bully them or they behave themselves too!
When I was climbing through with my dd, my son was lying on his front crying, with a 8-9 yr old girl sitting on his back, not letting him up despite his pleas and obvious discomfort, while her friend watched
I quite loudly asked her 'to get off him right now - he's only 3 for goodness sake!' to which she did - whilst smirking.
About 10 mins later, these same two girls were stopping all the smaller kids getting through by demanding passwords and pushing the kids back - so again, they asked me for a password and I told them to 'stop being such bullies or I'll find their parents'.
I was bloody fuming.
They moved then and I didn't see thier parents. Yes, when the kids get older you don't need to helicopter, but u do need to keep an eye open as kids (mine included) can be buggers when left to their own devices.

Soft Plays are crap.

They are only really any good for kids of school age - any younger than that and it is chaos trying to look after them, soft play places are huge barns with tiny gaps etc. Sod that.

PLus lots of people who go really are the scourge of the earth.

It's easier when they are teenagers. You can avoid these kind of places wholesale and just send them 10 pin bowling whilst you have you hair done.

I always fix them with a glare/patronising smile and then ask them extremely nicely to cease doing whatever they are doing with lots of please and thank yous. I would be less icy with an under three though.

I've only once come across a mean little boy at soft play, following and hitting my friends DD.

I found making eye contact and giving him my 'special' stare whilst mouthing 'I'm watching you' worked a treat

I have to admit I am a fan of soft play as in the winter they are one of the few places we can go where DD1 can run and DD2 can crawl and they are both safe. Having said that there is one locally I don't go to as there are far too many children being ignored by parents.
I sat with mine in ball pit (DD2 was 9 months) and had to repeatedly ask other children not to throw balls at her. I always say it very nicely but firmly. I refuse to get out and take my children away as I believe it is giving them the wrong message. They need to be prepared to stand up for themselves (in a non agressive way obviously.)

If one of mine was acting in an unacceptable way I wouldn't have a problem with someone else calmly telling them to stop. I would usually be there first though.

It does annoy me when other people let their older children into the baby area.

I'm another one who loves soft play - I find that the kids have a great time and any mishaps are soon forgotten. My 3 year old DS is really independent and wouldn't let me helicopter if I tried. We've never had any real problems with him at one - in fact he once brought a crying child out of one and found the little boy's (who was actually older than him) mother and told her her son was upset.

DD hasn't been to one for a while but at 17m she's also really independent so, while I would watch her more closely, I know she'll be off and going. Having an older brother has made her a hardy and fearless little thing (which is a good and a bad thing).