Do you ever step in and physically help another child at the park?

[Anonymous]

Help if they’re stuck, yes. Help onto a swing, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I'd prefer that everyone had an "it takes a village" mentality, the reality is that a lot of people are really weird and will freak out if they see you touching their kids. I have definitely helped toddlers on playground equipment, e.g, a child wanting to get down but struggling with the ladder. But mostly our individualistic society dictates that we don't touch, discipline, or interfere in any way with another person's child. Just look at how people on here freak out when someone at the park tells their child to stop throwing sand or pushing small children.

+ 1 from a former nanny, but now a teacher. Every one freaks out. Don’t touch. (Maybe a shoelace). This village has too many lawyerly types.

[Anonymous]

As a Dad, i feel this is even trickier. I would always help a child if it were a safety issue, but my first move would be to get my wife to help. I don’t know what it is about the parka we choose, but in multiple occasions I have encountered a child who climbed to high on something, was calling for help, and no one was responding. I don’t have an issue with a nanny or another parent helping my child if I am not right next to them because I am watching.

[Anonymous]

Don't put them on or in things they can't get on or into themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d of course intervene on a safety issue.

I hate it when kids who aren’t mine ask me to swing them, watch them do something, help them on monkey bars, etc., when I can see their own parent/caregiver sitting around scrolling on the phone. I’ll politely pay attention to them for a minute and then explain I need to attend to my own kids.

+1 I hate it too. Those kids are so annoying and starved for attention!

+2. Same and I’m a nanny. I find it truly loathsome that negligent parents consider themselves “free range” and anti-helicopter parents when it’s strangers who are forced to watch and encourage their children.

No one wants you helicoptering around their children. Keep your eyes on your own paper.

[Anonymous]

I've encountered many nannies at the park who are on the phone the entire time paying zero attention to their charges. If only the parents knew what was really going on. Please with the nannies trying to lord it over parents at the park.

[Anonymous]

Nanny here. My employers and I agree about children and help... A child who can do something on their own doesn't need an adult to do it for them. If they can't do it for themselves, they need to practice until they can, but it's the adult's job not to push the child too far. For us, this means not putting children onto any structure they can't navigate on their own. I'm happy to hover within arms reach while they climb, but they need to be able to climb up and down on their own.

I do not respond to children screaming for help on structures. I've seen my charges do that, many times, and I don't want to count how many people I've stopped from lifting them down. If they climb up, they can climb or slide down, they just don't want to do it.

[Anonymous]

yeah no big deal but sometimes i say "he can do it" bc he can

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d of course intervene on a safety issue.

I hate it when kids who aren’t mine ask me to swing them, watch them do something, help them on monkey bars, etc., when I can see their own parent/caregiver sitting around scrolling on the phone. I’ll politely pay attention to them for a minute and then explain I need to attend to my own kids.

+1 I hate it too. Those kids are so annoying and starved for attention!

+2. Same and I’m a nanny. I find it truly loathsome that negligent parents consider themselves “free range” and anti-helicopter parents when it’s strangers who are forced to watch and encourage their children.

No one wants you helicoptering around their children. Keep your eyes on your own paper.

LOL. Found the lazy parent!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d of course intervene on a safety issue.

I hate it when kids who aren’t mine ask me to swing them, watch them do something, help them on monkey bars, etc., when I can see their own parent/caregiver sitting around scrolling on the phone. I’ll politely pay attention to them for a minute and then explain I need to attend to my own kids.

+1 I hate it too. Those kids are so annoying and starved for attention!

+2. Same and I’m a nanny. I find it truly loathsome that negligent parents consider themselves “free range” and anti-helicopter parents when it’s strangers who are forced to watch and encourage their children.

No one wants you helicoptering around their children. Keep your eyes on your own paper.

LOL. Found the lazy parent!

You don't know that about pp.

What if that parent has multiple children and the one someone else thinks needs help, doesn't? I saw a grandparent the other day who thought a little girl was alone. The girl even said she was alone. She wasn't. I could see her Dad keeping an eye on her the whole time while he tended to the younger sibling. When the older needed him to intervene, he did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here. My employers and I agree about children and help... A child who can do something on their own doesn't need an adult to do it for them. If they can't do it for themselves, they need to practice until they can, but it's the adult's job not to push the child too far. For us, this means not putting children onto any structure they can't navigate on their own. I'm happy to hover within arms reach while they climb, but they need to be able to climb up and down on their own.

I do not respond to children screaming for help on structures. I've seen my charges do that, many times, and I don't want to count how many people I've stopped from lifting them down. If they climb up, they can climb or slide down, they just don't want to do it.

I disagree as a teacher sometimes kids don’t know how to get down or are afraid. The way you stated it sounds like a kid is just screaming for attention. When you are on the playground with 120 kids that is rare. The kids however do get afraid sometimes. I never touch but I will talk a kid down. Sometimes
They don’t know where to place their hands and feet or just need a voice guiding them. When they are down that is when you say if you can’t get down, don’t try that til you are ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll help them down, but not up. I don’t want to help a kid into a situation they aren’t coordinated enough to handle alone. I’ll also tie a shoe or make impressed sounds as needed.

Same. With the caveat that I'd only help down if they asked. My kids were climbers and our rule was they could only climb something they could get up on their own so, no, I'm not helping you up into that tree, or on the monkey bars. And the correlate to that rule is that you have to do the work to figure out how to get down. If you've tried and need help, fine, but have to give it a good effort first. Some parents IMO are way too anxious about little children on play equipment and too quick to jump in to "help" when not asked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Help if they’re stuck, yes. Help onto a swing, no.

+1 If they aren't big enough to get in a swing alone, they probably need to be pushed. It's very possible they already had a turn on the swing and the parent/caregiver has told them no more for now, go do something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nanny here. My employers and I agree about children and help... A child who can do something on their own doesn't need an adult to do it for them. If they can't do it for themselves, they need to practice until they can, but it's the adult's job not to push the child too far. For us, this means not putting children onto any structure they can't navigate on their own. I'm happy to hover within arms reach while they climb, but they need to be able to climb up and down on their own.

I do not respond to children screaming for help on structures. I've seen my charges do that, many times, and I don't want to count how many people I've stopped from lifting them down. If they climb up, they can climb or slide down, they just don't want to do it.

I disagree as a teacher sometimes kids don’t know how to get down or are afraid. The way you stated it sounds like a kid is just screaming for attention. When you are on the playground with 120 kids that is rare. The kids however do get afraid sometimes. I never touch but I will talk a kid down. Sometimes
They don’t know where to place their hands and feet or just need a voice guiding them. When they are down that is when you say if you can’t get down, don’t try that til you are ready.

I understand that, and I'm there to talk them down if they need it. As I said, I don't know how many adults I've stopped from lifting them down, and I'm standing right there.

We also have had issues with a child climbing up fearlessly, then screaming for help. Since I'm cautioning them as they run over, they don't need an adult to rescue them and reinforce that they can do whatever they want and be rescued constantly.

[Anonymous]

I grabbed a toddler at the airport once. She had taken off and her maaaaybe five year brother was chasing her while the mom was four gates back on crutches shouting at her to stop.

Mom reamed me out for touching her kid. I'll never help a child again.