Image borrowed from Central Mall’s (OK) Website
When you go out with your children, who’s responsible for them?
You, right?
I would think so- they’re your kids.
So riddle me this- why is it that some parents think that they can just take their children to the indoor play areas in the mall and let them run wild. Here’s my gripe about that stuff:
1. There are height restrictions- your teenager should not be in there jumpin’ and hoppin’ around the padded play area. There are little toddlers trying to play in there! They shouldn’t have to worry about being knocked over by a fourteen year old. Why are these kids even in there? I realize that some are unaccompanied- they meet up with their friends and walk around the mall. They should know better than to be in there… I guess the key word there is should.
2. You’re sitting in there chattin’ with your friends, Tweeting, Texting, Facebooking, surfing the net- whatever you are doing and not once do you look up at your kid! Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you! If you looked up for five. seconds. you would have seen your (obviously bigger than mine) kid trying to push my daughter off of the slide with her feet. Really?
You would’ve seen your son grab my daughter around the waist and try to bodyslam her off of one of the foam toys.
Now, on another day I may have gotten pushy, but I kindly swooped my daughter up in both instances and redirected her to a new toy.
See, I try not to intervene, because I know that children need this kind of social interaction to learn what their peers do and do not like… it’s like recess at school. They learn how to interact with one another. But when my child is too young to verbalize that she doesn’t want you trying to push her off the slide. When she thinks that every other person around her height is a friend. When she is so overjoyed at the fact that she’s even in the doggone play area to give two shits about whether another kid is trying to rough her up…. that’s when I step in.
I saw one parent’s son blatantly push another little girl from the top of the foam play tower. His mom marched right over to him, grabbed him up- they had a talk, then he went over and apologized. I’m no expert parent, Baby C being my first, but I liked that she made him say sorry. I would think that I would explain to Baby C why doing that is not appropriate and then ask her (make her?) apologize as well.
What do you think about parents who bring their kids to play and then completely ignore what their child is doing?
And do we need mall play area monitors to keep the ever-so annoying, obviously too big to be playing in this area, kids out?
Let me know.
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Ugh. We used to go to one of those places, but it was like Lord of the Flies. After my kid, who was then 15m old got kicked in the face by a 5 year old who’d been left there by his mom, we never went back.
You’re my kind of Mom. I hate the “now Throckmorton darling, how could you have said ‘I hate you” nicer to that little girl?” type!
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I have to say, I think it’s disgusting when parents are too busy to watch their children in a play area. I get that the kids are confined to a space but that never stopped my nephew from running outside of the play area. I saw a kid flip himself over the ledge of the play area once – he started crying when he fell. The first time the kid tried it, another person intervened and sent him back to the play area. The mother ran over to the “nice person” and started screaming that she had no right to touch her son. The ladies reaction: SO WATCH YOUR OWN CHILD! Three minutes later, the kid succeeded in hurting himself when he fell onto the HARD TILE FLOOR on the other side of the wall. The mother slammed down her Starbucks coffee, ran over to her kid and started screaming “what did you do? Don’t cry! It’s your own fault!”
No lady, it’s not his fault. It’s yours for NOT watching your son.
This is why I believe some people should need a license to be a parent.
Just my 2 cents.
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My kids are older now, but I only went a few times. I prefer visiting with families one on one or just going to an outside park.
Amen to that! I’m so tired of parents checking out when their kids are at a playground & blatantly ignoring the signs with rules on them. Big kids should not be playing on a playground designed for under a certain height, shoes off & socks should always be worn, and kids need to be taught to behave. We’ve stopped going to our local mall play area because of parents not being responsible with their kids and several incidents where 10-12 year olds were knocking little kids down including my daughter. I’ve never really reprimanded another kid, but I’ve made very LOUD comments about those mean, rude kids to my girls so their parents could hear.
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we don’t have these kinds of play areas at our local mall unfortunately, b/c i think my son would enjoy them. personally i’d have no problem telling those teenagers to get lost. i’m going to give the parents the benefit of the doubt on that one and assume they aren’t bringing their teens there.
it’s very frustrating when parents aren’t watching their kids. i’m not sure if i’d say anything though. i mean, on one hand i’d want to know if my son just clocked some other kid so i could address the issue. on the other hand, i’m tired of parents who start jumping on me for every little thing my kid does (you know, stuff like going shoeless in the sandbox, not anything that’s hurting him or anyone else) and so i try to avoid calling out other kids. if it were a onetime deal i’d probably do what you did and move my kid, but if the other child were continually being a problem i guess i would approach the parents. i wouldn’t reprimand another kid though, because no way do i want a stranger reprimanding mine.
anyway, i’m in agreement with you the parents need to watch their kids and be aware of what’s going on so they can jump on problems as they happen, with whatever is the appropriate way to handle it for their kid and the situation.
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