The Playground Jungle

Today is the beginning of three days' worth of looking after Seb; don't get me wrong, it's not that I never do, but because of nursery, work and other things I don't tend to see him much in the week. Right, so I arranged to go out with my friend Charlotte and her daughter Samantha and after a couple of cups of tea for dutch courage we took ourselves over to their local playground. Now, don't get me wrong, every area is fairly mixed and Charlotte's road is suburban, busy but the houses are well-tended and it's nice, unfortunately a neighbouring postcode really isn't and I know I shouldn't say it but it has quite a preponderance of social/council housing - call it what you will.

Being school holidays it was crowded, but with a high number of older kids. There were eight or nine-year-olds riding big bicycles around and quite frankly endangering the safety of the youngsters. One kid ran into a toddler/pre-schooler but the mother, despite flashing the brat concerned some rather dirty looks, did absolutely nothing. Ok, so when the brat nearly compromised the safety of young Seb and Sam I marched up to him and gave him a piece of my mind. You'd expect a child to be somewhat humble wouldn't you? Oh no, not at all, the brat insisted on answering me back, telling me not to shout at him and generally to leave him alone. He even denied seeing the 'no bikes' sign on the gate. Ridiculous. One mother deigned to back me up but I saw one of my neighbours in the background with her husband, daughter and grandchildren, she, of course, did nothing, despite being a gossipy old hag most of the time and especially during street Christmas parties when she's got nothing better to do then run everyone down. Her husband wears a hangdog expression most of the time, I don't blame him.

Anyway, the upshot was that the brat left the playground and only returned once we'd departed, some fifteen minutes later. Does this mean that parents have to put up with such behaviour? Is this why this country is such a bloody mess? Answers on a postcard to 'Eleanor Writes, PO Box 123, Suburban Hell'

Rant over.

PS - no invitation for Charlotte to the latest NCT antenatal birthday party. What a surprise, so glad I'm out of the loop on that score.