Reply to Parents who don't intervene -- why not?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the poster above- I think we have different definitions of cooperating. If an older kid is going up the slide while my kid is trying to go down- that isnt cooperation.

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"Oops, hold on Larlo. Looks like this big kid is taking a turn on the slide. Okay, your turn once the big kid is up!"

"Uh oh, Larlo, looks like these big kids are playing on the slide already. Let's go down the other slide or crawl through this cool tunnel instead!"

This is really not hard, folks. [/quote]

DP but are you suggesting if the big kids are sitting on the slide for 15 min this is acceptable? What about the concept of taking turns? I get it, if it’s just trying to climb up a couple of times but kids sitting/climbing up doesn’t exactly sound like sharing or playing nicely. I assume 2-5 yr old playground still counts as toddler playground to you?

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I am not the PP, but as the person who initially said that I don't intervene at the playground often because I am tired, what I will say is that there are many situations in life when the thing that you want is not going to be available to you at the time that you want it. It would be nice if the "big kids" on the slide would let the little kids go down the slide, and it sucks that those kids were apparently not taught to share, but it is also developmentally appropriate for a 5yo to want to play on a slide with other 5yo and not necessarily be aware of other people wanting to use the same slide. The playground that we go to is designed for children between 2yo and 5yo, so the 5yo group on the slide has just as much right to be there as the 2yo who wants to go down the slide.

If I am looking for a teaching moment here, the teaching moment, as the parent of the 2yo, is with my own child, to whom I would say, "Hey, it looks like those kids are using the slide right now. Let's go to the sandbox/swing/whatever instead." 2yo are infinitely distractable and will probably be satisfied with another activity. If that is not the case, simply saying, "Hey guys, can this girl go down the slide?" is perfectly acceptable. Would it be nice if all parents were immediately on the ball? Yes. But they (we) are not always on the ball. Sometimes we would like to sit on a bench and finish our coffee while our children play in a developmentally appropriate playground with a gate. Your child will not suffer any lasting harm, emotional or otherwise, because of three 5yo who didn't want to share a slide on Saturday morning.[/quote]

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