Stepping in an unsafe situation on the playground

[NotChained]

When entering School there was a child swinging a large piece of wooden equipment around by the pavement all the parents come in. The entrance is very busy. We had to move out the way as this child was blocking the pavement and I said oh be careful with the equipment catching us but not hard as I'd pulled my child out of the way. No parent in sight, the child carried on.

On the way out this child was still swinging this equipment about and people with small children were coming in to the school and struggling to get in safely due to this child and would have been hit.

I calmly said oh be really careful someone could get hurt let's put it down, I gently put it down to move it out of the way of the small children and placed it safely on the floor, and went on my way.

I then get shouted at by a parent saying I have upset their child and what do I think I am doing. I apologised for upsetting their child but it was clearly a case of I'd told them to stop doing something dangerous and they didn't like that, not because I was nasty.

This ensued them arguing they had been watching them. Obviously not as you wouldn't be letting them do that otherwise.

I don't feel I was being unreasonable but should I have just minded my business?

Their child was being unreasonable. You were not.

That's awful op, we had a similar incident with a key stage 2 Yr 6(guessing) child and a tree branch on way to school, so no parent around. I had to say to my young child, "Oh we better stay clear, that's dangerous let's get past. " There wouldn't have been any point in talking to the kid, as I think there was clearly some other issues going on, and I was worried he would deliberately hit us, dc was scared, and we hurried past. I then had a chat with dc who didn't understand why he was doing that.
I would have said in your case op: "No parent was around and your child could have hurt somebody, so I had to act quickly."

You did the right thing and absolutely nothing wrong. I have said before to a child who was bothering mine in the yard, "Where is your Mum? Let's find her, funnily enough he ran away, and the Mum took him away quickly with siblings. People unfortunately like to chat/stare ar phones and not watch or engage with their dcs.

You weren’t being unreasonable. Sounds like the parent is one who won’t have their little darling told what to do.

How parents let their children behave like this is beyond me.

If he was causing a danger to other kids and parents I would have taken it if him and informed the school that the child wasn't being watched.

It was your business. The behaviour made it your business.
And well done for dealing with it.

Thanks all, if it was me I wouldn't dream of approaching another parent and shouting at them if mine had been causing a nuisance! It ended up with it having to be reported in the end due to the parent not letting up.

Yeah that’s bad! Not on you but the other parent or non parenting
in our school the staff are supervising home time and arrival and things like this would be stopped by them instantly
can you bring it up with the school?

@NameMyyyee3333 i already had to go to the office as the parent kept following me and yelling at me.

Just the fact that they followed you yelling... I think even without the level of detail you gave we could all tell you were fine and they were one of those parents who lets their child behave like a menace then attacks anyone who so much as frowns at them. They may well have been watching but they didn't care about the effect on anyone walking past. You did the right thing.

A large piece of wooden equipment?

That's what I thought! It's an odd way of describing something. Chair? Cricket bat? Wooden leg?

@BoredZelda The school has equipment out on the playground for the children to free play with and that is used for dedicated sessions. This includes big tyres, these wooden planks the children can lay down and walk across or build with, and other pieces of equipment are left out, but they are left at the side out of the way. The children are only meant to touch these when supervised.

Agree, dc's school is the same and it is a load of random tatt, so not something you could attach a name to.