How do you deal with other people's bratty children when they pick on yours at a playground?

AmberWavesofGrain

 Example: This 3yo was trying to push J off the slide and his Dad was not paying attention/ignoring the whole scene. After I asked the brat to stop it he still was trying to slyly shove J around. I finally yelled over to the Dad to control his child.

It did not end pretty...Dad started getting in my face, trying to intimidate me. I just told him that I could see "the apple does not fall far from the tree". Ugh.

BriAndSean

Seriously? I can't believe the nerve of some people. That would be almost enough to make me find a new playground, or at least bring DH with me the next time!

Fortunately, that's never happened to me. We usually only go to neighborhood parks and everyone is very pleasant and social.

KNemo

I think I would deal with it exactly the way you did. I can't stand that other people pay very little attention to their children, then get upset at others who are parenting.

preston18

I don?t think I?d tell another parent to control their child.  I?d think it, but unless they?d hurt my child I wouldn?t say something so agressive.  I?d either remove my child (sucks, I know, but there are crazies out there) or say something nicely to the other parent.  This is why I call security at Bellevue Sq when big kids are running amok in the play area.  I am not getting into it with another parent.

 

I?ve found that for most kids a ?watch out for the baby? goes a long way.

 

My job is to parent N, not other people's children.

keri1013

Ugh, that is so frustrating! I would probably try to say something within earshot of the dad, like "Oh, J is so little, can you be extra gentle?" or some such. If that wasn't enough to get dad to actually be a parent, then it gets a little trickier. I would either take my kid to a different part of the park or say something to the dad like "Hey, can you give me a hand with taking turns?". But with lazy parents sometimes there isn't much you can do.

zazzu

I don't have any human children yet, but I have experienced this a lot at dog parks (which is possibly just as bad). I'm non-confrontational over general stuff. I usually just try to go do some other activity and leave the pest alone or quietly correct the pest myself, but I can get terribly protective of my dogs if for example some idiot shoves my dog. People aren't going to learn a lesson by getting told off by some random stranger. I wish they would though.

Mrs.State746

KNemo:

I think I would deal with it exactly the way you did. I can't stand that other people pay very little attention to their children, then get upset at others who are parenting.

I agree.  

Actually a close friend has a little boy that is even more spirited than mine and he is also 1 year exactly older than T.  He is pretty rough with T, even though he can handle himself because he isn't small or anything.  She is pretty good about stopping her son from totally tackling T but sometimes I have to step in and pull the other boy off and tell him to stop.  He always runs at T and goes for the neck (I think to tickle) but T falls over.  It's honestly hard to hang out together with our boys because her boy can't take it if T does it to him.  Which he does. 

coribecca

Like it or not, it's a role modeling opportunity.  DC is always watching, for better or for worse.  I try (not always successfully) to handle situations like that the way that I want my kids to handle them.  So I don't yell at other parents and tell them what to do, even if I really want to.

AmberWavesofGrain

Afterwards I felt like I lost my temper and wished I had handled it better.

I did ask the kid to watch out for the baby and then to share, but it didn't work. Neither did my 'hairy eyeball' look. Normally I would just move to another area of the playground, but this kid was picking on all the babies and I wasn't going to let it continue.

 

MrsAmyB

coribecca:

Like it or not, it's a role modeling opportunity.  DC is always watching, for better or for worse.  I try (not always successfully) to handle situations like that the way that I want my kids to handle them.  So I don't yell at other parents and tell them what to do, even if I really want to.

This.  But I have been known to ask someone to stop doing something (remember the farking incident?).  In this I talked to Meg about how we don't use the language he was using and I kept my composure, I hope Meg learned from that.

JDCSKF

This happened to me last spring. Except, Grandpa was watching the little girl, and actually grabbed Josephine when his granddaughter shoved J a little too hard and she was about to fall off the structure. Grandpa did nothing and said nothing, as the behavior continued.

I just grabbed Josephine and left, because it was an unsafe environment. It actually took me over 6 months to go back to that specific park.

pinktulips

I don't know if it all the years of coaching, but I have no problem directing other kids to be safe when it comes to my children or my friends children. I will even go as far as to order them off the toy and to go find their parent.

The ones that drive me crazy are the kids who you see the accident that is going to happen, but the parents always seem to be mia. I always feel so helpless in those situations because you can't go handle another persons child, but can't yell at the parent to stop being a dumba$$ and pay attention to their kid either. Although, if it is a potentially serious accident (running into the street, etc) I have caught the kid.

JDCSKF

pinktulips:

The ones that drive me crazy are the kids who you see the accident that is going to happen, but the parents always seem to be mia. I always feel so helpless in those situations because you can't go handle another persons child, but can't yell at the parent to stop being a dumba$$ and pay attention to their kid either. Although, if it is a potentially serious accident (running into the street, etc) I have caught the kid.

This happened to me last week at Gymnastics. We were upstairs in the veiwing area, and the toddler keeps trying to go down the stairs (steep, metal stairs), the mom was socializing and not paying too much attention to her son......Her daughter was in a class, and not doing well either, maybe it was a sign.

Seattle_JiLLn

I say something like "That's not nice" to the kid.  And then I fuss over my kid saying "I know it's hard to play when some kids aren't playing nicely.  Let's just leave him alone and play somewhere else".  And I hope the parent listens.   I've never directly confronted a parent, but honestly I've never had it be that bad.  WOW.  I can't believe that dad was such an ass.