What is the appropriate way of dealing with this situation...playground etiquette question

[BeatrixRotter]

At the playground with my DD who is 2 and there is a group of 4 children aged between 4 and 9. One of the girls was trying to establish a game which made my DD the 'baddie', and 3 of played it saying run away from the little girl, keep away from the little girl etc (the fourth seemed to feel uncomfortable with it and kept looking at me awkwardly).

What is the correct way to behave in this situation? I know I am being completely PBF but it was hard to watch DD running round trying to play alongside them (she loves the park best when there are loads of kids there) and oblivious to the fact they were basically being mean to her. If she went off to do something else the ringleader would try and get her back interested in them again so they could all desperately try to get away from her again.

So should I have left them to it as DD probably didn't know what was going on? As it was I tried to encourage her to do other things and interact with me, does this make me the most ridiculous PBF parent ever?

Hard to tell without being present - was the 'ringleader' really being mean or just sort of using your DD as a prop IYSWIM?

If she was being really nasty i would have probably said something lighthearted like 'aww thats a bit mean isnt it? She is just a baby'. Unless the girl was a total nightmare that would have probably been enough to stop her.

If it was just a bit of a silly game I would have ignored it as your DD didnt have a clue what was going on. Sounds like the older girl was being a bit daft and not worth worrying too much about.

I dont think you are being ridiculously PFB. It cant have been nice to watch! You have years of this sort of thing ahead of you though ....

well the gist of the game was that my DD was trying to take their toys away (which she wasn't) and when DD was doing other things the ringleader would wave the toys at DD to try and get her interested in them. It felt mean but I fully admit to being a softie. I'd always play with someone who was on their own in the school playground as I couldn't bear it.

Anyway might need to try and toughen up a little!

I don't think you were being PFB, either.

I imagine that, as mrsDeVere suggests, they were using your dd as a prop. Which isn't nice at all and I'd hope my ds (9) wouldn't do that, but almost all dcs have moments where they just do not think.

If he was involved in a similar game, I'd be more than happy for you to intervene in the way mrsDeVere suggests.

Thinking about it - I think ds and his friend have played something similar with his friend's dsis. She was a Dr Who monster iirc. It was quite funny.