It’s just not worth telling off other people’s children – there is no benefit despite what your instincts say

The fear of possible repercussions will always be there

Parks and playgrounds are not the place for parenting children other than your own (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The other day in the park a small child came up to me and hit me with a long stick. The stick was big enough to be classified as a small branch and the child was big enough to know better.

His parents hadn’t seen what happened. I resisted the urge to reprimand him despite the fact I had a scratch on my arm and was annoyed. The child had won.

It reminded me of when my first born was two and had been trying to go down the slide while an older girl had tried to climb up it. At the summit the girl had tried to navigate past my son so she could go down the ladder. I had to heroically intervene before my son unceremoniously toppled off the top.

“Slides are for going down.” I said, to which the girl got the hump with me. In a display of defiance she turned with a flourish to go down the slide and promptly fell of the edge. There was a horrible moment in which I had visions of her parents rushing over as the girl screamed and pointed at me shouting: “She did it, she pushed me!”

They didn’t and nor did she. She was fine. But the fear of the repercussions were enough. Never mess with other people’s kids. You will never win. It’s the child’s word against yours and they have parental reinforcements as back-up. You just can’t triumph.