'I'm not in the business of raising a**holes' - Mum's experience of a play centre
No one wants to give their opinion when they think it's going to be the unpopular one.
But sometimes, you just need to get stuff off your chest, and if that means you're going to come across sanctimonious, then so be it.
Laura Mazza, needed to get a couple of issues ironed out, and while she knew it was dangerous territory, she didn't hold back.
When the mum-of-two was recently at a play centre with her kids, she came to the stark realisation that often, we're not as much of a community as we like to think.
"Kids will be kids. Kids are snotty, they're possessive, they're demanding, they're cute mostly, but they can be little aggressive ninjas sometimes."
"There's no other place to discover this then when you put a whole bunch of kids together at a play centre."
For this reason, Laura has found herself to be a little 'helicopterish' as she explains: "Not full helicopter, but one eye is on my mum friend and my latte and the other is on my child."
"I like to make sure they're safe, that they play nice, that they don't snatch, or sock a child in the face. Because that shit isn't cool. I am definitely not overly helicopter. I let them go and learn, and I'm not a parent who will not let any other kid go in the vicinity of mine."
"I want them to socialise and have a good time and all play nice. I am responsible for my own child when it comes to this."
Laura understands that when you are on public property nothing is belonging to your child, just as it isn't belonging to the other child in the vicinity.
However, if another child has something before yours, they can play with it first until it is your kid's turn – it's called sharing.
"It is amazing how many adults are yet to grasp this. […] I've never told another child off in my life. I don't like it. It's not my responsibility. My responsibility, like I said, is to my child."
"If my son snatches, I correct him, if my daughter smacks, I correct her, if my kids are assholes, I step in. This behaviour is not okay at any age," writes Mum.
Nonetheless in a strange turn of events, Laura found herself telling other kids that what they were doing wasn't nice, kids at the play centre which weren't hers.
"Because no one else was gonna do it. I watched two five-year-olds ram one of those mini drivable cars into my daughter and laugh while she fell over while I was helping my son into the ball pit."
"I watched a little boy climb on top of a jungle gym where his mum had no idea that he was about to come falling down, and I caught him. She came over when she saw a stranger carrying her kid and gave me a dirty look while she snatched him off me."
Furthermore, Laura witnessed, two kids smack her little boy while he was going down a slide, prompting her to ask them to stop, but she's not normally one to tell a stranger's child off, which made her feel strange.
"If you're gonna pretend you can't see it because you wanna sit and chat, then I'm gonna tell your child off. I'm not perfect, not even in the slightest. But I'm polite and I'm not in the business of raising assholes."
"I've been up all night too, I am desperate for social time too, I'm lonely, I'm tired, my neck hurts and everything else, but I also don't believe that my kid is entitled to pull your kids hair because I want a hot coffee."
"And if you see my kid be a jerk, you tell him off too, or tell me and I'll correct him asap. This is the sense of a community."
The mum-of-two asks that parents start watching their children while in play gyms, because mums need to have each others backs so it can be a 'smooth' experience for everybody.
"This is a village and it only works if we all do our part, that way we can all have a good time."
We do need to have each others backs in this parenting world, it's not an easy gig. Do you agree with Laura? How have your experiences of play centres been?