On Saturday, we celebrated Finn's 4th birthday with a lunch at McDonald's Greenlane,
Nicolas and Eloise were very well behaved at the lunch table and of course the last ones to leave to go play. They were too busy stuffing their faces with fries that they hadn't noticed that the other kids had gone to the playground. The Lightning McQueen cake drew much attention from Nico, who thought it was very yummy. Eloise didn't care about the cake, she just wanted the fondant. That's my girl.
After ice-cream it was time to go to the playground again. And that's where the trouble started.
There was easily a kid to parent ratio of 3:1. Where did the parents go??? Out of the playground area (admittedly there were just 4 tables in there) and getting some peace and quiet, leaving their kids to squabble and shove each other.
I'm not one to judge (ok who am I kidding, I am), but there were scores of misbehaved kids there. I never was good at being all nice and friendly and fluffy with misbehaved children, so all of my glaring and frowing strength got some use on that day.
Intervention 1:
An 8 y.o. boy was throwing a Smurf toy into the air and onto the playground so it would randomly bounce all over the place, including close to other children's heads.
"Hey. Time to stop throwing toys before you hurt other kids."
He immediately stopped and started using the playground for its intended use. Or maybe he left.
Intervention 2:
Another boy was yelling at a 1 y.o. boy, telling him to go away and go home.
*stood there and glared*
He stopped and climbed back inside the playground.
Intervention 3:
There was a group of children, including Nico, were gathered around Eloise; she often gets attention from other children and I didn't hear her cry (I couldn't reach her as it was quite deep into the playground) but as I went to check up on her, a little girl informed me that she had been scratched by another child, but none of them knew who it was. Ellie wasn't crying at all, so after a cuddle to make sure she was ok, I set her down and kept a close eye on them.
Intervention 4:
"WAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
This time it sounded like Eloise and she sounded very upset. On top of the stairs, I found that her cheek was bleeding. The same little girl told me that Eloise got pinched, and that she (the girl) got slapped by the same boy. Cuddle, hand over to Papa, then I rushed towards the playground to grab the culprit (I was fairly sure by now that it was one those two 8 y.o. boys earlier) by the scruff of the neck and boot him out of the plaground. Only to be shown to the 1 y.o. boy who was being yelled at. *jaw drop* The youngest kid (and he smiled at me so sweetly too!) on the playground was the bully! That's when his dad decided it may have been a good time to wander over to us, pick up his son (did I look menacing?), make a half-ass apology and say that he'd been doing biting and pinching at daycare, and meekly said 'Naughty boy'. Then went back to finish his meal while his son got back to the playground. Only after a few stares from Bas did the father finally decide to check up on Eloise, see the blood, then issue another apology.
What could/should we have done? Nothing. It was a jungle gym out there in a kid eat kid world, and unless we issue them a full face helmet, this sort of thing is likely to happen again. But you can be sure that I won't be as nice next time Nicolas or Eloise get hurt by another child at a playground, parent or no parent. The first parent who gets to the bully is free to do what they want with him/her, and it might just be me.
