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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I find the arguments being posed by non-toddler moms hypocritical honestly.

There is no way if you were in your own backyard with your own kids (ranging from crawling/walking-10 years old) and they were all playing on the swing set that you would not expect your older kids to watch out for the younger ones.

There is no way that if you are at someone else's house and they have a younger kid that you just expect the younger kid to stay out of your kids way.

If your kid can watch out for their sibling, they can watch out for other kids.

[/quote]

This is an interesting point- I would, I assume, expect a 10 year old to look out for their 18 month old sibling if all playing together in the backyard.  Even closer in age siblings I would do that.  But I don't think I'd task my school aged kid with keeping an eye out for all of the babies/ toddlers on the playground, no.  Helping with their sibling is a responsibility of theirs, as part of our family.  [b]While I would certainly not allow them to run roughshod all over a bunch of babies, I would also not hyper-intervene if they were swinging on the monkey bars and a mom let her baby play underneath them[/b].  If the baby in question was my OWN baby, I'd move the baby!  Or if I couldn't for some reason, yes I'd call out to my older kid "keep an eye on Sister under there please!".  Because the baby is my responsibility, and I can delegate some of that responsibility to my older kid if necessary.  But I'm probably not going to ask my school aged kid  to watch out for a baby whose mother is right next to it but not intervening.  My kid is there to play, just like yours, and your baby is your own responsibility. [/quote]

Thank you for thinking so but youve responded with an extreme example (see bolded). Im not letting my toddler play in the swing zone. I am intervening- I was the mom talking about how [b]my LO was going across a bridge- designed for one person- and another kid couldnt wait their turn and was stepping on his heels. Or if he is crawling through a tunnel, kids will still enter even though he isnt completed[/b] and try and step over him. OR going down a small slide and the older kids are using it to access the play equipment.

Also I was primarily noting that older kids are capable of seeing younger kids. Its been said here a few times that middle-school Bobby just doesnt see little kids- he is incapable. No Ma'm he is capable. I am not expecting your kid to watch over my kid. Im expecting that your kid be capable of seeing another human and react to that input by thinking...." hmmm cant go up this slide because someone else is coming down- I know! Ill use the stairs or go up an adjacent slide." If your kid went up the slide while your other kid was going down- youd internally be like WTF Bobby!?!
Well I'm internally saying WTF Bobby too![/quote]

But these things CAN be used by more than one kid.  I see 2 or 3 kids in the tunnels together ALL THE TIME!  Including climbing over eachother and laughing sometimes.  They are KIDS.  And the bridge- I may not be able to speak to, since the bridges I have seen on playgrounds can all certainly take more than one kid at once, in fact that's when they seem to think it's the most fun when one kid runs across the bridge and it kind of bounces the other kids who are on it and they laugh and jump etc.

If it's something truly designed for use by one child and one child only at a time- for example, a swing, or a skinny ladder- then of course another kid should not jump on that swing or that ladder if another kid is in the process of using it, but the examples you gave seem to me more like your kid is too little to handle being around older kids on a playground and when your kid is 5 or 6 you'll realize that babies and small toddlers on play structures are a nuisance for everyone- the other kids, the parent of the tiny kid who has to play referee, and not to mention the tiny kid himself who usually ends up getting hurt or almost hurt.

Bigger kids should not under any circumstance be running up and down the baby slide, or messing with the baby swings,  if a baby is on it so i'm with you there.[/quote]

Exactly. +1 million
It’s so painfully obvious how those scenarios went down from the PP’s post. Her toddler is taking forever (at least in the minds of active 4-5 year olds) and basically monopolizing the tunnel and bridge. Newsflash: it’s a playground for goodness sakes. This is not “file in line in an orderly fashion please”. Get a grip and maybe move your baby when his “heels are getting stepped on (??)” or let him get brushed by as kids run past—maybe he’ll move faster or maybe he won’t/can’t and that would be your cue to move him. Or again, keep letting him go slow with the knowledge that other kids are going to want to move past him. Etc etc etc [/quote]

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