DS aged 4 assaulted in soft play

[summerpixie]

Ds was kicked between the legs by a girl aged approx 8 in soft play yesterday. Girl was most prob truanting and soft play complex staff weren't particularly bothered when I told them my son had been hurt.
I had to guilt staff member into talking to the child who denied it at first told her that her parents were outside of the complex and in a restaurant nearby and then said she did kicked DS
But by accident when she turned around (yeah like that is possible).
I questioned staff member as to of the kids had paid and parent details on the sign in sheet. She said she would check. Kids ran out of soft play and into arcade.
There was lack of staffing and nobody manned the kids area preferring to man the adult sections. I complained to manager who was dismissive and claimed it wasn't his fault he was short staffed and he couldn't do anything as the kids had gone.
I contacted HO and police. Police will investigate but kids most likely to get away with it as under 10.
Is there anything I can do to get soft play area prosecuted?
Sorry for the snippet I will elaborate if there is something I can do legally.
Many thanks.

I don't think anyone has suggested you called 999!

Oh please, just get over it.
Parents need soft plays, toddler groups, parks and play grounds. Bringing the law into it just means it's less likely any one will bother running them.
It also encourages owners to lit them only to small children. This is a real problem if you have several DCs as you don't have any where for the eldest one to go.

You can't sue the soft play unless you have had some "loss" and you haven't, so there endeth the issue.

Your OP did not read as if you thought the truancy was the issue, and in any case, what has the truancy got to do with you? If she is 8, then the school will be perfectly aware that she isn't in attendance and will presumably be dealing with it themselves.

Your last post makes no sense, why is it acceptable for supervised children to hurt your son but not unsupervised ones?
Is it if they are supervised you know who to sue?

WTAF

You really have got to be taking the piss.

If not, you need a serious dose of reality.

You have wasted police time.

The child was 8 ffs she was a child you don't know if she was truanting.

I had my DD out to lunch with me this week. She's 13. She was in her uniform and we were in a restaurant.

What you wouldn't know is that she had an appointment which finished over her school lunchtime, she'd left from her dad's house that morning and he didn't make a packed lunch for her and as a consequence of that (and also for a treat since she'd had the appointment to go through) I took her out to lunch before returning her to school.

I would be livid if someone phoned the police as a result of that.

Limit them to only small children.

Older children really do need to run around to. They also need to learn to respect younger ones, but threatening their parents with the law is not the way to do it.

Oh and she kicked your child by accident.

And - de minimis non curat lex The law does not concern itself with trifles

Catch a grip.

Dear God! I have heard it all now! You need to strip some I'd that cotton wool away!

Perhaps someone should have phoned the police last week when my son is uniform and I went to a McD's for dinner, FWIW we where on our way back to school after hospital appointment and had missed school lunch. Also a few months ago I had 2 appointments at the same hospital over 10 miles from school, one at 11 and one at 2 so in the "middle" bit we went to a soft play area.

PFB. i didnt know what that meant until now.

If you were really worried about possible truanting why not phone the school the girl was from rather than the police, and why mention the kicking when you did phone them rather than just the truanting?

I can see you are very upset. The decent thing of the management would have been to get hold of the girl's parents and tried to get the girl to apologise.

was she a bit old to be there? It is a long time since I have visited this sort of thing.

Insanity... utter and absolute insanity.

Your child got kicked.. it happens, and it will no doubt happen again as he grows up, but you cannot go through life ringing the police and trying to start legal action against everyone and everything that upsets you a little in life.

I think you are wasting police time.

Apart from giving the girl a ticking off there is not much else they can do.

What do you hope to achieve out of taking action against the soft play place?

Compensation
Changes to policies
Different rules
Staff to be disciplined
etc.

You need to decide what the end goal is you are looking for.

Did you see your child being hurt by the girl?

My DD2 is 9 and she had her birthday party at a local soft play last year.

There were loads of kids that age there, so 8 definitely isn't too old to be there

I hope to goodness you did not intimidate and bully or hector the girl who is only 8 and a child

And I can't believe you've sent your DH to go in again today to complain again.

And I can't believe he's gone.

IME it would be very unusual for an 8y to be truanting surely? That's a very young child to be missing from school.

the op has been asked repeatedly where she was when this happened and the deafening silence speaks volumes.

Vicar, I was sitting in the parent area with a pushchair and 4 month old watching where my DS was.
When I called 101 he asked what I wanted and I said I would like to know if I can log something with local police station re local leisure complex allowing potential truancy.
The man I spoke to asked me for details of location and what happened and I said the girl had kicked DS in the nether regions. He instantly said: do you want to log that as assault. I said : if you think I should then yes. After taking details of location etc he said unfortunately, and this is where I think the law needs to be changed, is that children under 10 cannot be prosecuted.
So no he did not laugh and he was the one who suggested the assault log. I knew that nothing would happen to the girl.
The simple fact is the staff and management at the establishment are quite happy for any old roger off the street to waltz into soft play and do as they please. They have their policies such as wristbands and signing in sheets but these are pointless unless the staff are there to check on these. The branch manager told me the soft play desk should have been manned at all times.
Thanks for those who have given constructive advice. If I wanted to wind you all up I would've name changed.
I will construct a long winded and strong letter to their head office and let them deal with their structures and hope that no child gets seriously hurt in there by either adults or children.
You can all get off your high horses now.

A very good point, Vicar.

So at what age would you like little children to be criminally responsible for their actions?

Lord above.

Fill your boots, OP, and when soft plays start closing down, don't whine that your kids have nowhere to go.