As a parent would you..

[vhairi]

go and tell a member of staff at one of those kids ball places that another child had hit your child?
To explain,i took ds{4} and dd{2} to one of those kids action places, balls, slides, trampolines etctoday. Only in the place 5 mins when a member of staff came up to me and said just to let you know that your ds has hit other boy in face, not sure what happened as it was parent of other boy who told us but keep an eye on him blah blah. Knowing my son, he probably did so i took him aside and asked what happened and he said other boy wouldn't let me down the slide. Not an excuse for hitting but in his head he was justified. My ds was told off and given warning. Just wondering though as a parent would you go and tell or would you leave it, one off incident btw. Just seemed very childish thing for parent to do.
Phew, all done!

Message withdrawn

vhairi, I agree!!

I have yelled at many a child if they have done something to mine!!!

Up to now!! mine have never been ones to hit out at others (they have always had each other to do it to lol!)

I remember once a child literally attacked one of mine and I am not going OTT, he had her by the neck shaking and shaking her so badly. Boy did I yell!!

The whole place stopped in silence as I yelled "oi put her down" and I mean yelled!!

No parent came forward though he was a horrible child and continued to be very violent towards the other kids

I wouldn't necessarily complain to a member of staff - I'd tell the child not to hit mine ever again, or they'll suffer my wrath . Then - if the child did it again, I'd complain.

The problem with soft plays is that they are like rabbit warrens, and it's not always possible to see what's going on, or who did what did to whom.

I'm completely with WWW - no, I wouldn't tell the staff unless I thought the child was causing a serious problem and I thought they should be removed! IF I saw it and the child's parent was not obvious to me, I'd 'tell them off' too. Like WWW, if not sure who then I address everyone with 'lets play together nicely, it's not nice to hurt each other is it? blah blah'.

I certainly don't mind my child being told if I've missed it. Ds pushed a little boy over in soft play last week - I was utterly mortified, pulled him out, made him apologise, I apologised profusely to parent and I made ds sit on a chair for a good while before he was able to play again. For the rest of the time he kept coming up to me to tell me he was playing nicely and not pushing! He's just 3.

anniebear - had a similar situation myself when ds was only 2 - three boys who must have been at least 5 were literally punching him. He was lay down and one of them was straddling him. Boy did I shout - his mother never came near. Pathetic.

I wouldn't vhairi - I would talk directly to the child and supervise more closely. I might speak to a member of staff if a child was repeatedly attacking younger children/babies (not my own). If someone came to say there had been a barney involving my kids my reaction would depend on which child it was. DS1 wouldn't happen as he is 100% supervised by me, ds2 -very gentle- I would assume there was tit for tat going on so I would ask him his side of the story and we'd have a chat- ds3 a little bit young, but shaping up to b a horror so he'd probably be told off!! I would be a bit peed off though.

Mind you last time I went ds1 spent most of the time checking out the toilets (especially the girls- started off OK as it was a SN only session, but then other groups came in so more of a problem). god I hate those places!

getback - I hate them too! DS1 seems to be attracted to playing with older kids that want to be mean to him and it's heart breaking to see, that's why I play a lot with him. I don't smother him, if he's had enough of me he makes it perfectly clear and I leave him alone, but I make sure I can see what's going on and if I know there are any children in there that are a problem I'll encourage him to play elsewhere.

We were on holiday when DS was 2 and a half and had just ordered a meal which we were eating in a pub beer garden which was empty when we got there. DS was having a great time running around playing on the slides and swings and in the little house, then 2 other families arrived - obviously locals - with 3 little boys who all looked at least a year or so older than DS. To cut the story very short it ended with all 3 chasing DS till they caught him and pushed him over laughing at him, me crying (was hormonal and very pregnant at the time) DH being his usual helpful self saying 'it's ok, they're just playing' which they so obviously weren't. They were bullying him. I made DH go fetch him, one of the mums came over a made a crappy attempt at an apology as she saw how upset I was (and I was getting quite loud about it), at no time were the kids made to say sorry to DS, they continued to try to get to him till I'd had enough and just left. All of this time the kids parents sat swigging beer, smoking having a laugh and a joke and completely ignoring what their kids were doing. They spoilt the day completely. If I'd not be an emotional wreck at the time I would have said something (as I have in the past) but I was just so upset. The one time DS has been caught hitting out I came down on him so hard he's not done it again. He was made to apologise and had a major loss of privileges and touch wood he's learnt it's not ok to bully. I just wish all all parents would supervise their kids properly when they take them out. It's not fair on everyone else if they don't.

I've always thought the world would be a much nicer place if there wasn't anyone in it..