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.

very painful for your DS, hope he is ok poor little guy

I was wondering the same friends. My god-daughter has always been big for her age and was age-guessed at 8 when she was 5 .

It wasn't an 'assault', it was an accident - sometimes young kids are careless and play a bit too rough, and someone gets accidentally shoved or kicked. These things happen, and your DS was not seriously hurt, it is not a big deal.

YANBU to think the soft play area could have supervised better or enforced their own rule about unaccompanied children. Though even if there had been staff or another parent supervising, this sort of thing can still happen! But YABVVU to involve the police or want anyone to be prosecuted, or to insist on the manager coming out to apologise to a 4 year old .

You should have been supervising your ds better and then it probably wouldn't have happened.

Reminds me of the incident on holiday a couple of years ago where a group of kids Inc my 9yo dd were playing and a 4yo boy got slightly hurt by my dd by accident I was at the side of the pool but not directly supervising dd and the 4yos parents went berserk saying I should have been right by my dd. But the ironic thing is they were further away then me and didn't even know which of the kids had hurt theirs but dd was good and owned up.

Accidents do happen.

Op - by reading your comments the only person who needs to get off their high horse is yourself. I cannot believe you have that much time on your hands to get yourself so worked up. In your opening comment you have stated:

Police will investigate but kids most likely to get away with it as under 10.

Which you obviously feel very bitter about and have now worked yourself up into a frenzy. WHat did you expect the police to do that HO couldn't apart from get a crime number, make a note of your childs injuries, make the manager apologise (probably with witnesses) to accept responsibility so you have a 'case' for compensation. If your son is still in discomfort have you even taken him to the Doctors?

There was a lack of staffing and no one manning the area.It was your child who got 'assaulted' under these 'conditions and you allowed him to stay. If you feel so strongly about the soft play conditions - quite simply do not go back.

You sound like the type who ban conkers and yes I agree with the post further up - I pity the teachers of your son when he does go to school (you will be suing the school if he ever tripped in the playground).

OP, I think you are bad-pedallying a bit. You say you were not aiming to get the child prosecuted, merely to take action against the complex, but in your OP you said:

'the police will investigate but it's likely she'll get away with it because she is under 10'

That sounds very much to me like someone who was angling to get the police to take action against the child. That information is what they fobbed you off with when you asked, isn't it?

Op, you might want to draw the manager's attention to this case:

Parents liable for injury caused on bouncy castle

In this case, an older child caused a serious injury to a younger child by doing a somersault on a bouncy castle. I believe he was wearing shoes. The parents who hired the bouncy castle were successfully sued for not supervising adequately.

It's not exactly the same circumstances but there are enough similarities to make them reconsider their health and safety procedures.

pedallying.

Fellatio we were on holiday once and DD insisted that going on the pedallo was known as pedaddlling

You just made me remember that

Sorry. Of no relevance to thread whatsoever.

aren't 4 year olds meant to be in the reception class anyway?

Well, you were quite plainly ridiculous and precious to ring the police at all. I hope you do realise that, although I suspect from your indignation you do not.

The only thing you could've reasonably done (note that that does not say should've, as you could quite legitimately have done nothing) is made a comment to staff about how children get access to the play area. You can't know that the girl was playing truant, that was a silly assumption.

And I'm sorry, but at your DH taking your DS back so the manager could apologise. It is clear from this that despite your assertions, you really do believe your DS has been hugely wronged. He hasn't. It was rough play, that happens when you take children to highly excitable locations such as soft play.

I'm afraid I think this whole situation is absolutely bonkers and you have blown it massively out of proportion.

I missed the bit about her dh taking the ds back so that the manager could apologise...please no!

this has got to be a wind up

Oh dear, I'd also missed the "DH taking DS back so that the Manager can apologise" bit too. What a lovely sense of entitlement you are teaching him there. Do you also get him to practice being unforgivably rude to waitresses & shop staff?

Your initial question was whether there is anything you can do to get the play centre prosecuted. You could prosecute them yourself for damages based on their negligence, but I don't see anything worthy of damages here nor do I see any evidence that the incident could be blamed on negligence by the play centre.

The only other way they could be prosecuted would be if they were in breach of relevant legislation such as health and safety. However, I can see nothing in your post that indicates they have breached any relevant legislation.

You complain about a lack of staffing in the children's area but play centres are generally quite clear that supervision of the play area is up to parents. This is the only way most of them can operate. The business would not be viable if they had to have sufficient staff to supervise the children. And, as others have said, incidents like this happen whatever supervision you have in place.

It would be very easy when crawling under and over and spinning around to accidentally kick someone. You were not there, you do not know it wasn't an accident.

The only person responsible for supervising your child is you.

c0rn if he had turned 4 after 1st September 2011 then he wouldn't be starting Reception class until September 2012. Not here anyway .

Op is overreacting.

But it is shocking that everbody on here thinks the following is normal:

• for a big kid to kick a 4year old.
• for a kid, any kid, to wander into softplay without an adult, play, run off when she wants...where on earth were HER parents in all this.

Is noone concerned about these facts? To me it is not normal all! No I would not have called police, but neither do I think this is all.perfectly normal and ok!

I think the OP has a valid question about why a girl who looked 8 was there unaccompanied, how she had got in and there wasn't sufficient supervision to enforce their own rules (removal of shoes). Being kicked in the nuts by someone with shoes on is very different to socked feet.

I also think it is unfair that people are piling in with personal comments and questioning her professional capacity.

Thinking someone is unreasonable and stating so is fine. Personal attacks are not.

Chandon, my understanding of it was that the OP's DS was kicked, not that the girl struck out at him. I would be concerned if she stood there kicking the crap out of him, but since the OP was not close to her DS at the time, it sounds like she's made massive assumptions about what really happen, and that it's more than likely that it was accidental. We don't really know about supervision of the girl either, the OP thinks she was truanting, but has no evidence to back this up, so it's entirely possible her parents were around.

Too many variables in this situation to judge it properly, aside from it being obvious it's all been blown out of proportion.

happen happened

The managers/staff in there are insane if they think it's ok to have young children and adults wandering in and out unsupervised and unlogged - I know there aren't child abductors on every corner yadda yadda BUT surely if something DID happen they are liable? If they have a published policy but haven't bothered sticking to it? Very strange.

I agree hermione but she didn't come on here saying 'I am concerned about the health and safety procedures at the centre - a girl was in there apparently unsupervised, still wearing her shoes and not signed in by a parent, and until I drew their attention to it the staff had no idea' That is valid, and the real issue. If there had been a fire she would have been left in there!

I think the OP rather wanted vengeance for the kick though.

Fellatio (love the name BTW), I agree, she is still very angry about the incident and could have worded it better.