It's not my job to keep your kids out of trouble at the park

I caught the gaze of two dads watching their older boys aggressively fight despite toddlers and babies trying to play.

My daughter started walking last month, and this has meant we’ve been visiting the park a lot.

Not only does it help her burn some energy, but it also gets us out of our tiny apartment.

I remember spending hours at the park growing up and having so much fun playing with my sister and all the friends I’d make on each visit– it was carefree and fun. 

I thought taking my toddler would be the same, but it seems the playground is a modern-day Wild West.

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“Where are your parents?”

On a recent visit to a new park, my daughter was waddling around fascinated by the many hundreds of leaves on the ground.

All of a sudden, four boys started roughhousing right next to her.

I decided to stand between them and my daughter and just ignored them playing around. 

While they were hurting each other, they weren’t hurting anyone else, and I thought until it started impacting the safety of my daughter or other kids, I wouldn’t step in.

I’m a firm believer in letting kids play, and while I disagreed with ‘how’ they were playing, if the parents were comfortable, it wasn’t my place to say anything.

That was until they started throwing things around the park, one item hitting my friend’s daughter and yelling quite confrontationally to each other.

The roughhousing started to become very aggressive and it was impacting everyone around, parents including.

I began scanning the park, looking for the parents responsible for these boys disrupting the peace, and I caught the gaze of two dads watching their boys aggressively fight and laughing.

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The park is a shared space, and parents should step in to respect everyone playing. Source: iStock

You still have to parent at the park!

My friend comforted his daughter, and we decided to move away from the boys. 

I couldn’t help but feel frustrated that these two dads felt like they were off the hook when it came to parenting, and it was everyone else's responsibility to move away from their ratbag kids.

I’m not sure why they thought they were off the hook when it came to parenting their kids just because they were at the park.

Perhaps they didn’t think their kids were doing anything wrong?

Maybe I should have politely asked them to tell their kids to chill out?

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We decided to move away, seeing as the parents weren't stepping in anytime soon.

Ask the audience

I decided to ask a couple of friends what they would have done in the situation, and it seems it’s a 50/50 split.

One dad told me, “I [would] just leave and find a different park.”

Whereas another mum told me, “If the kids were being little sh*ts, I’d be comfortable telling them to cut it out.”

One revealed, “I would give them passive-aggressive looks and the same to the parents.”

And another said she’d gently highlight to the kids her baby is around and to just be a little careful.

Originally published as It's not my job to keep your kids out of trouble at the park