Other people’s children!

Posted on December 18, 2007

I took Chloe to the mall play area today to blow off some steam. While we were there, there was this little boy who decided to target Chloe. By “target” I mean, he would run by her and “tap” her, not hit, tap. She didn’t seem to mind so I didn’t say anything. Then he followed her to every play area. If she went to the fishes, he went to the fishes, if she slid down the slide, so did he. Then, he started to get in her way. If she went down the slide, he tried to climb up it, if she played on a fish, he tried to push her off of it. But, she was still handling it fine, so I didn’t say anything. (I should also mention that his mom was on the cell phone the entire time and didn’t notice any of this.) Finally, the last straw was when he started to actually hit Chloe when he ran by her. I told him, “Please don’t hit.” Then he tried to push her down the slide. I said, “wait your turn.” We left after I had to grab him and stop him from pulling her up the slide after she started to go down it. The good news is I saw his mom pull him out of the play area after he took a swing at another kid.

Now, I am a newish mom, and definitely new at playground politics, so my question is, “Should I have told his mom?” I mean, It really would have been one of those conversations where I would have to say, “excuse me, can you get off your phone and pay attention to the fact that your son is harassing my daughter.” I am sure there must be a better way to handle it, but at the time I just wasn’t sure. And, I felt unbelievably uncomfortable grabbing him to stop him for hurting Chloe.

Anyway, these things have a way of spoiling a good time and I really didn’t want to punish Chloe for what another kid was doing.