Children's Playground Ethics.

First off, if your child is below 3 years, kindly assist him/her to play. I've seen a father who suddenly came into the playground area shouting "Who pushed him? Who pushed him??!!" upon seeing his son falling down and crying. Dude, seriously, no point blaming others, if you don't want your child to fall, be with him. DUH! (and yes, the child looked no more than 2 years old)

Do not let your child climb the slide from below. Ask them to go through the stairs. I don't really mind if the child is alone, I understand that children have their own imagination and sense of adventure. What makes me tick is when the parents is there, letting their child climb the slide when obviously, a queue is starting to form at the top of the slide consisting of children trying to CORRECTLY go down the slide (including my child).

I once said to a boy (indirectly to his father, who was just standing not two feet away) "Abang, bagi adik turun dulu gelongsor ni boleh?" because my child is trying to slide down (like a normal person do), instead of trying to climb up the slide (like the boy was trying to do).

Of course, he didn't understand me, and almost fall off in his attempt to climb the slide, all the while the father was watching him, and DOING NOTHING.

So, I did the next mature thing to do. I told my child gently, "Sara, don't do like abang ok. Next time you want to climb the slide, use the stairs. Don't be selfish like abang, ok?".

The father instantly looked at me. And immediately coax his son to climb through the stairs. Luckily, he did still have some ounce of shame.

From my observation, the parents are always there in the playground area, standing nearby the child at every time (which is good thing) but more often than not, the parents (especially the father) just stood there watching. I get the whole "letting your child test his ability" thing, believe me, I do. But, when your child is dangling upside down from the stairs, its really a good time to interfere, no?