Child hitting DD at a softplay - should I have said something?

[kva]

The other day DD and I were at a fairly quiet soft play with only one another child and his mom. The kid (6.5) invited DD (3.5) to play. Everything was good at first, they are running around in circles, laughing, etc. Then suddenly he picks up pillows and hits DD with them quite hard (not sure if that was sort of a game for him too?). DD bursts into tears, I pick her up, cuddle her and she tells me a few times about how the boy hit her. The boy and his mom don't react although they both clearly see what's going on. I say to DD he 'did not do it on purpose' (although he clearly did) and we leave soon.

Should I have just said something to the boy's mum? I had a feeling that DD wanted me to talk to them but I was not sure what to say? What would you do???

Why did you tell your dd he didn't do it on purpose?

Why did you tell your DD that he didn't do it on purpose when he clearly did? Yes I think you should have said something, even if only to the boy, to stick up for your DD.

He did do it on purpose. Why say otherwise?

You’re confusing your child.

I was just trying to be polite and avoid this getting out of control as they were literally hearing everything I was saying.

What else could I say considering that?

do you actually mean pillows?? or soft play pieces? one i would regard as play, the other as violent

What? I can't imagine what to say on this situation? That her son must say 'sorry'?

‘Yeah that must have hurt, DD! Sorry that happened! Let play over here…’

What do you mean 'alone' - the kids were just in front of us. He hit her only once.

Soft play pieces - was not sure how to call them...

“Let’s tell him to play gently”

That's roughly what I said. All I could think of is to concentrate on her and remove her from the situation

No, no. She said to me a few times about the situation as she was very upset.

I would say- I saw you hit my girl and that is not OK.
Then I would remove my girl.

I'd hope that the mum would say something but often other mums don't. In which case I'd want my daughter to feel I saw what happened and I had her back.

If my daughter wanted to go back to play after a cry I'd walk back with her and say, my girl wants to play again, but not if you're going to be rough. Will you play kindly? And take it from there.

Well, no; it's not remotely similar to what you said

In the scale of out of order soft play behaviour this is very mild (assuming you mean actual pillows and not the soft play pieces)
i probably wouldn't have said anything because arguing with parents in soft play is never fun, if she saw it happen and didn't say anything chances are she's not going to think he was in the wrong regardless of what you say.I think 3 year olds need close supervision still in soft play because kids can be over excited and boisterous in that environment

Well, maybe. It would be a bit awkward but I guess the whole situation is not great.

Would it be not weird to speak with him when his mom sits just in front of us? I actually thought maybe I should tell something to her instead of him, but could not figure out what.

No

No, of course I said to her I was sorry, etc etc. Lots of cuddles and acknowledgement of her feelings. I thought this does not even need mentioning.

My question was more about whether I should have said something to the boy's mum, i.e. that maybe he should say sorry.