Reply to Am I too loose parenting?

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Reply to "Am I too loose parenting?"

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[quote=Anonymous]I think I know the scenarios you are describing. I have spent a lot of time at city parks with my kids, and there is often a small child who goes up to older children and adults expecting to play with them. It’s usually on a playground that is relatively secure. When this happens, I would assume the child was lost and would look around for an adult. There would be a caretaker sitting somewhere, but they would make no move to retrieve the child.

A three year old on their own is unusual, as most kids that age have a caretaker following them around, no more than a few feet away. And if they went up to older kids, or adults, the usual thing would be to help the kid say hello and then redirect them, with the assumption that the adults and older kids did not want to play with them.

Honestly, and I could be in the minority, but I always wished the caregiver kept a better eye on the child. Most of the time, the older children did not want to play with a toddler. And as an adult, I didn’t want to play with a small child other than my own, and I felt responsible for their safety as long as they were trying to engage with me. When my children were older,  I also had to warn my children not to hurt the child. I couldn’t help but feel that the caretaker was careless, lazy, or had bad judgment letting their toddler roam that far from them.

I can see your perspective that your child is social and loves to meet people. Aside from safety concerns of allowing your child to approach strangers readily, it seems out of the norm for how most other caretakers took care of their toddlers at the park. [/quote]

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