Do you let your DC climb up slides in the park?

[rosie79]

My ds who's 3 has always been really into climbing (like most kids this age!) and for as long as he has been able to has climbed up slides in parks as well as sliding down them. He always waits his turn if it's busy and doesn't climb up if someone is about to slide down. I have always let him do this as I know that he knows his own limits and has yet to have any accidents, he is careful. Our parks are rarely very busy either. However, I have often heard other mums say to their kids as they try to climb up the slide "no dear, go up the normal way" or the "proper way" or similar words to this effect, or worse "you'll get the slide dirty" !! So their shoes doen't make it dirty if they slide down?! .
It doesn't bother me what other parents let and don't let their kids do, that's their choice, but to imply that my child is doing something wrong or abnormal and give me funny looks or say stuff extra loud so I hear them, that's annoying!! surely in playgrounds children should be able to use the equipment however they choose to, exploring and being adventurous? Isn't this what childhood is all about? With a bit of adult supervision it isn't dangerous. Am I on my own in feeling like this?

Pfuh. I grow my own mung beans, play fiddle at folk festivals, listen to Mary Black while washing up and don't have a car For Ecological Reasons..... and I still think basic good manners are worth teaching to small children in social situations such as municipal playgrounds.

So uppitt!!

So I could add "Slide climber, or non-slide climber?" to my list of things to ask new people I meet.

There I was hoping to limit it to "ER or Casualty?"

Or "Are you a cake or lick-the-bowl-of-cake-mixture kind of person?"

ds climbs up slides-he prefers it to going down them but like most people I only let him do it when no one else is around. As for the social debate, its just a bleeding slide aint it!
emmylou-licking the cake mixture is deffo the bit bit of baking! and ER
do I past the test?

Correct. And correct. You pass

Unfortunately my dh fails. His liking Casualty over ER is a huge failing in my ability to filter out the wheat from the chaff of the male species.

Slide-climbers is not a class question.

If you do want to ask a question which will split on basis of class, check out the 'when do you open your Christmas presents' thread.

omg this thread is so funny!

it has cheered me up over my MIL now extended visit.

Do you guys do children's parties?

Haven't read all this thread but noooooooooo!! Never let my dc's climb up slides as that's akin to scraping a knife on a plate, squeaking chalk on a blackboard or sitting on newspapers.

ER is a pile of old toss.

Give me House any day

Ahh yes, Greensleves, you have a point (in recent years anyway). There's only so many times one can sob at the death of a staff member's baby/husband/self. But it draws me in I'm afraid.

Am thinking of taking new tack and defecting to Green Wing. (Can I do that if I dicourage my children from climbing slides and lick the bowl of cake mixture?)

omg pointyfangedweredog, dh and I have this debate every year and it is such a class thing, I come from a very definite after lunch one at a time, everybody watches when you open a present type family and dh comes from a before breakfast every man to himself family. I say nothing more i am a snob!
i have gone off er since Noah Wyle left

phew, wasn't just me then!

I thought you'd be on the other thread, zombie, but you're not and I really don't want to hijack the riveting slide-climbing thread. But interested to know who wins the present-opening argument in your upstairs downstairs house?

How about at Indoors play! And how do people feel at throwing balls in the indoor play???
sLidewhys, again, I don't see a prob unless someone trys to go down them...it's not as if Kids would succeed to go up indor slides, as they are far to slippery, lol!
Ballthrowing, ms almost 4 was in indoor ballpen, and started to "thorw" balls, not at a person but in genreal in the air...father wiht young ds about 12 month was in there, and told him that is naughty...si it? Now if he threw them directly fair enough...but generally in the air...I thought that was what ballpens are there for, to bury yourself, etc...,a m I wrong!?!????

What happens if you get a slide for Christmas? Does when you open it determine whether or not you are allowed to climb up it?

Depends if you're watching ER, House or Casualty at the time.

Do you remember the kid at school who'd write 'By hook or by crook I'll be last in your book'?
The slide thread was the first thing I've ever looked at on mn... will I be the last person to post a message?

pmsl at this thread. When dd is at the walking stage I'll expect her to be climbing far more exciting things than slides. She's more likely to be the one climbing the 15ft wall next to the slide.

Oh, and I'll be the one encouraging her.

bugger

Thanks - I've been having fun - this could be addictive. I'm definitely going to bed now!

as a final thought my children (aged 5.6 and 2.5) are well aware that climbing up stairs is only way to go if other children are on the slide BUT they are also aware that they are not allowed to slide down until there's no-one at the bottom

so if a child hangs around the bottom of the slide it will actively force my children to hang around at the top waiting for the bottom to be clear

which would be another reason I would be pissed off at the parent of a kid who hangs around the bottom .. they're screwing with the laws of the playground ..and the laws of the playground are a force to be reckoned with

and before I head off to the park today (where admittedly I haven't been for at least a month or 2) I shall just have a quick practice .... tut, tut, TUT

Fortyplus - you're not my sister are you?

Haven't got a sister as far as I know.

I thought that I should have a philosophy for life. Something like 'Carpe Diem' (which I had to look up but translates as 'Sieze the Day') However I thought that this was a bit pompous, so instead I have decided to go for 'You're never too old to be immature!' Sums me up nicely, I'd say.