What do you think?

[Shanti]

I understand what the PPs are saying in terms of what might come next with this particular child, not being aggressive or confrontational with the other kids but if my girls were just running around growling (DD2 is frequently either a tiger or a T-rex), then no, there is no way I would pull them up just for making noise outside. I figure that if my kids can't let off a little steam outside, I will have no chance of keeping the noise level to something more appropriate inside.

Maybe I'm seen by other mothers as being disinterested/neglectful, but I hate seeing kids at playgrounds constantly pulled up on what they're doing, whether that's running around with imaginative play, or doing something that a mother considers dangerous. My kids have pretty basic rules at the playground - take your turn, don't push or shove, keep your hands to yourself, don't go up a slide but only down, no throwing sand. Otherwise, I figure its a place for exploration and experimentation - can I do the flying fox by myself, can I do the monkey bars yet, will these kids I've never met before play chasey/hide and seek with me. I'm definitely not a cotton wool mother (I was riding horses, climbing trees unsupervised and making cubby houses at age 5), so I think my ideas are perhaps vastly different from many others. Having said that, I wouldn't say something to another parent about what they allow their child to do unless they apologised directly to me for something they consider inappropriate their child did near mine ITMS

yep you get what I mean!! You sound very similar to me. We have basic rules like the one's you mentioned, of course, and I watch closely as my DD is only 3yrs old and my other one only 11mths so i"m a very involved parent always close by, listening ear etc without being intrusive on her play and learning. I am a silent observer but I'm involved and present at the same time.....

In this case, this mum had been busy chatting away and quickly jumped up to intervene when perhaps, just maybe, she could have waited a little longer watching her son before telling him off?

I think we all, at one stage or another, some of us more than others, have unrealistic expectations on how our children should be acting in a public place like a playground, perhaps it's our first child, and maybe we aren't comfortable with that behaviour for whatever reason, or maybe this Mum just presumed it was bothering the other parents nearby? (which it wasn't as we were all smiling at the kids laughing etc).

Ah dunno maybe I think too much