This is bugging me.What would you have done if anything?

[ImForeverBlowingBuble]

Before i start dont jump on me saying that not all lone men are paedophiles,i realise that.

A few days ago i took my 2 dd's to the local park.About 15 minutes after we arrived a scruffy man (looked about 50)walked into the gated play area,he was not with anyone else.
He went and sat on the bench opposite the baby
swings and just sat there watching.I noticed a few of the other moms looking at him (maybe due to his appearance or maybe not)
dd2 went running over to the baby swings infront of the man who was staring and i went and bought her back over to the older swings where dd1 was.
Next thing i knew the man walked over and sat right in front of the dds on the swings just staring.
I felt very uneasy at this point and took the dds home.

I feel i should have reported the man but he hadnt actually done anything wrong.

I wouldn't have reported him..as you say he wsn't doing anything wrong.

But I think you have to follow yur instincts (in the cases where I havent, disaster has struck). So if you felt uneasy, yu were right to take your children home.

Be prepared for LOTS of people to state that loan men don't = paedophile, btw.

if you see a pcso tell them about him

Well I guess I'd have found it weird too, but i don't think you can report him for it.

I guess if he was a paedophile, he'd be a bit more covert about it. Sounds to me like he just had a few issues / lack of social skills / general weirdness. Doesn't mean he's dangerous. Weird though.

Yes i am expecting that.

He made me very uneasy though and i cannot help my gut reaction.

Good idea SEA

INSTINCTS ARE GOOD - BUT

He could have been a lonely man who wanted to hear children's laughter
His child may have died at an early age and children are precious to him
HIs daughter may have just given birth and she lives in Australia and he knows he will never see his grandchild
etc etc

Just a thought

He sounds more like someone who isn't quite mentally together than someone who is actually dangerous. But it probably wouldn't have been a bad idea to mention it to a noddyplod if there was one around: the man might have got away from his carers or something ie he might have dementia, hence the odd behaviour, and someone might have been frantically searching for him.

Good thoughts Silkcutmama

Poor social skills/lack of social awareness, but could be lots of reasons- is it possible he had learning difficulties?

Impossible to tell if he had learning disabilty just by watching him tbh,although i did consider that at the time as i have worked/work with adults with learning disabilty.

ALso worth bearing in mind that someone who was genuinely ill-intentioned towards a child would probably not behave in such a blatantly wierd manner.

More likely to be autistic or otherwise mentally disordered (IME) than anything sinister.