Child hurt on outing - WWYD?

[GooseyLoosey]

Last week ds (6) and dd (5) went on a day out exploring (for 5 to 7 year olds). The people leading the trip were experienced, had lots of qualifications and there was a fairly high adult to child ratio.

When I picked up my children, ds had cut his thumb on a knife and dd had picked up a stick used for roasting marshmallows, resulting in blistering of her hand.

Niether child seemed upset by their injuries but nor was there any evidence that any first aid had been attempted.

When I picked them up I smiled and said these things happen and was aware of not wanting to over react

Now I wonder where the line is between not going too far and not requiring them to be accountable. As it turns out, dd's hand is quite badly hurt.

What would you have done in my position?

I probably would have been very cross but would have been embarrassed into saying much the same as you did.

Have you thought about writing to whoever is in charge and having these incidents in writing.

I would also take your dd to the GP for the burn to be checked and maybe take photos.

Things do happen but these two things could have been very nasty.

Health and Safety should be approached I think, if you can stand it, to try and prevent this occurring with other children...it might be even worse next time.

Sorry about your poor DD and DS

They should have had a first aider and they should have an accident record. I agree you should write to the organisers - it won't change what's happened, but they may get their act together in teh future. It does sound piss-poor - these things do happen, but then you deal with it effectively and sympathetically.

Thanks for the replies.

So you all think I should not just let it be? What prompted my question today is that they have just e-mailed me details of their next lot of trips and I wondered if I should tell them that I am not totally sure that what they were doing with 5-7 year olds was age appropriate or alternatively adequately supervised.

Would this be going too far? I think its a great thing that they do and I do not want my children to be cosseted. On the other hand...

Email and ask for a copy of their accident records and ask what first aid was given

Should have said that the knife ds cut himself on was a fairly sharp knife for carving wood, not for eating his dinner!

I have run trips in the past - we would always have given the group leader/parent a copy of the accident form that would show what happened and how and what first aid was given.

They should have records like that as a bare minimum.

Lovethesea - out of interest, how would you have expected a parent to react? Dd's hand is blistered quite badly - she cannot bend it or hold a pen and all I was told was that she had had a bit of an accident and burnt herself. There was no accident book in evidence as there would be if it had happened at school.

Surely a burn like that has been caused by something incredibly hot and it appears it had no cold water put on it, or certainly not enough.

I am guessing Fab, but I suspect that the stick she got hold of had been in the fire for some time and was still burning inside even though it looked black on the outside. Their comment was "at least dd has learned not to get hold of things which have been in the fire", a valuable lesson I am sure!