Reply to More playgrounds need age recommendations listed near equipment

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "More playgrounds need age recommendations listed near equipment "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We live just two blocks away from a really nice neighborhood park.  There are three climbing structures located in the park, two very large and one smaller. There’s also a large sandpit with some digging equipment and next to it a few very small climbing structures (basically soft domes).

The two larger climbing structures are probably geared for the 6-12 crowd or the physically aware/capable 4/5-year-olds.  Lots of harder obstacles to climb up, big drops.

The smaller climbing structure is probably for 2-5-year-olds.  Sometimes older kids will play, but for the most part it’s boring for them.  A toddler could manage with an adult nearby.

Sandpit is for all ages.  But the section closest to the soft structure climbing area as well as the area itself is where crawlers and new walkers play.

Yet this one mother comes every morning with her ten-month-old crawling infant comes to the larger structures and will finger walk her baby all over it.  Which, when it’s not busy is fine.  The baby seems to enjoy climbing and she has her at all times.  But when it’s crowded with kids?  She’s constantly telling kids to stop running and watch out for her baby when they’re up there.  She’ll block half the structure so her infant can sit and play with the bars.  Yesterday a group of kids were playing tag and about three 7/8-year-olds whizzed past her baby.  She yelled at them to be careful and stop running in a very harsh tone.  One of the kids moms yelled back something along the lines of, this is a playground, kids are going to run.  She argued that the park was for everyone and the older kids should be considerate of the your ones.  Other mom said this equipment was made for older kids and it wasn’t fair to expect the older kids to not play because she’s taking her infant up there.  Infants moms said there wasn’t a sign stating it was for older kids older, so basically everyone was going to have to deal.

No, it’s not explicit, but obviously this is meant for children who are older.  I agree with the other mom.  It’s not fair to expect the other kids to change their play to avoid baby.  It feels entitled.

I usually just have my kids play on the other large structure when she comes with her infant, but she’ll go back and forth often.  I of course, want my kids to be mindful of smaller children but they should be able to play tag and run![/quote]

Ok, but what about when the play structures say recommended age 2-5 (like they do at my local playround) and the 5 year olds pay no heed to the 2 year olds? I get your point, but I also see the mom’s point about other kids having to be mindful of younger kids. [/quote]

I do think the older 5-year-olds should be mindful of the younger two-year-olds as the older 12-year-olds should be mindful of the younger 6-year-olds.

In fact, I even stated that I teach my children (6, 6, and 9) to be mindful of younger kids.  We often will just move our game to the other large play structure.

My issue is with what I perceive is this woman’s entitlement.  She will bring an infant who cannot use this structure independently while large groups of older kids are playing and often have established a game and as soon as she enters she expects them to change their play in order to avoid her and her infant.  She’ll often use an entire section/slide of the play structure, forbidding any other kids to use the slide because her baby is trying to climb up or has found an interesting twig in the area.

I’m sure her infant would be safe and happy in the sand pit or on the soft climbing structures.  I think exploding the larger structure is fine too, but not when it’s in use by a large number of older kids that the structure is meant for…[/quote]

Its a public playground. Why is her child less entitled to any space than any other child? Talk about entitlement. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics