Do you feel creeped out or suspicious when you see men alone at the playground?

[Anonymous]

I’ve recently seen men sitting or standing alone for quite awhile at the playgrounds where I take my son. These are actual playgrounds, not parks with play structures. Would you find this odd? None of them are reading or eating or anything. If we were in DC I might assume they just wanted a place to sit, but out in the suburbs I do wonder what they are doing.

[Anonymous]

I'm a guy, and yeah, sometimes I am. One time I even called the police on a guy who I thought was a creep. A lot depends on appearance and demeanor.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I do feel creeped out.

But its not like I can call the cops bc no one is breaking the law.

[Anonymous]

Are you sure they are not there with their kids? I find that dads tend to be far more hands-off in playgrounds than moms. We just let them get on with it.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I was watching one and realized he was on a phone call, which maybe accounted for the fixed stare. But the tot lot is a weird place for that: he did not have a kid there. All the moms at the playground were keeping an eye on him and thought it was weird.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Truthfully I would feel uneasy/suspicious of any adult or teenager hanging out alone in a tot lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Truthfully I would feel uneasy/suspicious of any adult or teenager hanging out alone in a tot lot.

Same here. Men would make me feel more uneasy, and a single woman would too if she’s acting a little off

[Anonymous]

I feel suspicious of men who hang around the kiddie play area at the mall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure they are not there with their kids? I find that dads tend to be far more hands-off in playgrounds than moms. We just let them get on with it.

Yes, I’m sure. In one case my son and I were actually the only ones there and a guy was hanging around the picnic shelter. In that case, the playground was right off the WD&O trail, but something just creeped me out. If I were a guy alone, I don’t think I’d be standing wordlessly by the table where a 2 year old and mom were eating a snack alone.

Just this morning we were at a different playground full of nannies and mothers and a middle aged man just came with a man purse and sat for awhile. I don’t get it. This is a playground not near anything and he actually had to unlock the gate and come way into the playground to sit.

It doesn’t happen all the time, but enough that I’m starting to get paranoid with all the threads about creeps.

[Anonymous]

Yes very odd.

[Anonymous]

Ok, follow up question. What would you do? Confront them? Leave? Just do your own thing?

[Anonymous]

There are some places where it's actually illegal for adults to go to the playground unless they are accompanied by a child age 12 or younger. I think this is a good law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, follow up question. What would you do? Confront them? Leave? Just do your own thing?

I live in San Francisco and there's actually a law that anyone over 18 must be accompanied by a child into a playground. So if it felt safe, I'd say to the person, "Hey, did you know about [law]?" Because maybe they'd say "Sorry, I was just taking a break from work and zoning out - I'll go."

If it didn't feel safe I'd call the non-emergency line and describe what the person was wearing and why I didn't feel safe confronting the person, and ask if a cop could swing by.

Several times when DD was little druggies would shoot up at the playground and I'd ask them to do it somewhere else because I would hate for them to drop their needle in the sandbox and not be able to find it, or have a little kid grab their drugs as a game when I could see how important their drugs were to them.

[Anonymous]

The problem is many parks dont' seem to have benches or tables anywhere except the playground area. So if you want to sit for a while, you have to be in the playground.