to not want to scrub mud off garden toys at Sure Start

[MiladyDeWinter]

while a man sneeringly looks on?

Went to SS for the first time in a while because it was sunny. Cold though, with a chill wind, especially in the shade.

I was told that play was outside - great! And that "we" were tidying up the apparatus if I wanted to join in. So I did, with my bucket of cold soapy water. Fair enough.

However, there was a man there holding an older baby in his arms the whole time while his wife worked with me and his toddler swore at the other children and tried to slam them out of the way when they tried to go in the playhouse.

He left the disciplining of this foul-mouthed toddler to the SS staff and despite the baby falling asleep and baby bouncers all over the place continued to parade around inspecting the efforts of the women washing the play equipment without lifting a finger himself even though his wife said that perhaps he should put the baby down.

I left early and he fecking well tutted at me Me, with the autistic child, not that I said so, but I managed him whilst also cleaning which was more than he did.

Is Sure Start meant to be like this?

Sounds like he Sure needs a start! weird being there with wife too - not a place for a family outing in my experience. And the whole ethos of sure start is community, so everyone for the greater good and all that so to not get involved is v wrong. Maybe he has 'issues' being in a 'womans' world so wants to assert himself - bless

Yanbu
from the thread title i was thinking big deal, bit of mud to clean off not too bad
but the guy sounds a weirdo and not very pleasant, so yanbu on that.

yabu - no one made you join in the washing, you, like the dad you disliked, could have decided not to.
the unpleasant father was however BU as well, he should have butted out and got on with playing with his kids if he didn't want to join in the tidy up.And he shouldn't have tutted at you, he was an arse by the sound of it.

BUT Some of the less pleasant families one meets at childrens centres are the families who's children are most in need of the safe space and time the centre can offer. If the centre were only used by the staff and the "nice" it might be a nicer place to go, but it wouldn' t be doing its job either.
IME at surestart centres you get alsorts , from parents I would happily car share with or swap childcare with -to parents I would prefer not to know and I pity the kids of. In the middle of course are lots of parents having a tough time with whatever issues their kids and they have and trying to do the best for their kids.

Eh, UniS?

Actually the unpleasant father was not a visitor to the centre, he was either a partner of an employee or an employee himself. I've seen him there several times doing shite all and being all bloody arrogant to boot.

For example, I was trying to wash mud off the slide while trying to watch DS (ASD) and I was two seconds late and he ran in and on to the special carpet. Captain Arrogant said, "no no Young Man" whilst holding his sleeping older baby and gave me a dirty look when I was too late. I left then.