Playcentre etiquette 4 bullying littlies

[annsam]

Hi,

So what is playland etiquette with bullying?

If you go to a playcentre for 1-5 year olds and your little lad is under 2 and small at that and happy playing by himself and some 3 or 4 your old actually persues him to smack him and push him over and whack him with a hard plastic ball in the stomach and leg and back - what do you do? By time you get to your baby hes crying and the other kids done a runner to the other side of the centre and the parents........? well, they are no where to be seen. Do you approach the child or do you let it lie only to have it happen again 3 minutes later?.......

......and if you child is playing happily in a car and another older child decides they want it and physically yanks your child out by their arm and throws them on the ground? What can you do? Again, parents no where to be seen.

Nothing like this has happened before at the playcentre. Kids will be kids and all that and there has of course been pushing and such before but in the past the other parent has been there keeping an eye on the situation too but when this doesn't happen what do you do? Do you persue and tell the other child off or just leave it? I have no clue what to do. And I couldn't believe how particularly nasty these two seemed from the average 3 or 4 year old.

Any advice for next time would be appreciated.

[razzle]

I tell off the kid and ask where their mother is. That's usually enough to make her turn around, at which point I glare at her.

*I should point out that telling off the kid means I tell them to be careful or play nicely or something like that. If the kid is an obvious little ratbag, then I say it more sternly, if they're just testing boundries then I say it more gently.

[Fitmumma]

I tell off the kid and ask where their mother is. That's usually enough to make her turn around, at which point I glare at her.
Me too, dont let any little poop bully my kids, there are some real little roughies out there:mad: