what do you do whilst waiting for your children at clubs

sooty&sweep

Hi

The difference between a school and an activity at say a sports centre is that in the school it is secure controled environment with no strangers wandering around and the necessary staff to support individual children if needed.
At an activity at e.g. a local sports centre if the child for example needs to go to the loo they would probably have to unsupervised and it is an uncontrolled environment ie other members of the public could be using the facilities at the same time. There wouldn't be the staffing to provide support to individual children.
In my experience centres don't check / enforce this but they may say something if something happened and you weren't there.
It's a personal judgement thing as to whether your child knows the building and the staff there.
Has your child been doing these activities for a while ? Do you & your child know the staff and are comfortable with them ? If no I'd be wary about leaving them until you are both comfortable. If yes are there other parents you see there regularly that you could agree a Rota with ?
Personally I just read book or chat to other parents

Jen

Janepig

cutestkids wrote: »

My kids are almost 8 and 12 years old, I have never heard of anything stating that I should stay with them at an activity under the age of 8 except at swimming lessons.

Over the years they have been involved in beavers, cubs, fencing, athletics, karate, drama club, gardening club, and much more and I have never been expected to stay a any of them, is it a new thing that you must stay with a child under 8?

Like I mentioned in my post, DD's gymnastics club expects parents of under 8's to stay upstairs but there's a nice area to sit in, plenty of room and refreshments available - you don't actually get to see them having their lesson. Also for under 8's the lessons are only 50 minutes so not too long to wait. You find that most lessons have at least one or two children who have taken a tumble being brought up to their parents, and also as the youngest children there are still only 4, they often come up so that their parents can take them to the toilet.

Football and rugby training also seem to have most parents staying, even if they just wait in the car.

Jx

cutestkids

Janepig wrote: »

Like I mentioned in my post, DD's gymnastics club expects parents of under 8's to stay upstairs but there's a nice area to sit in, plenty of room and refreshments available - you don't actually get to see them having their lesson. Also for under 8's the lessons are only 50 minutes so not too long to wait. You find that most lessons have at least one or two children who have taken a tumble being brought up to their parents, and also as the youngest children there are still only 4, they often come up so that their parents can take them to the toilet.

Football and rugby training also seem to have most parents staying, even if they just wait in the car.

Jx

Hi
I get that at some individual activities you may be asked to stay with a child but the way the thread is reading it sounded like it was mandatory across the board, that if your child is under 8 the by law you should stay with them.
I just had never heard of anything like this before after 9 years of weekly activities with two kids, even things like karate and fencing which they both did from age 5 there was never any mention of parents staying, it was a case of drop of see you in an hour/2 hours bye.

pinkmami

Some clubs do not allow parents to drop off their children then leave. If you make a formal arrangement with another parent to keep an eye on your child, fair do's.

My football clubs don't. We have a contract parents sign to say they will be there/another guardian. They don't have to stay and watch, they can sit in the car/go into the leisure centre etc but they have to be on the premises. All welfare regulations.

We've done this as some parents dropped of their kids to pop to the supermarket, only not to be back in time to pick little one up. then the coach has to stay with him/her until mum comes back.

We are not childminders.

Oh for the record I sit with other parents having a chat/coffee or go outside to watch & again....chat!

iammumtoone

I think the rule is to do with if a child needs the toilet, there are not enough staff to take them and as it is a sports centre with members of the public wandering around I don't think the centre want to be responsible for any mishaps whilst a child is left to go to the toilet without supervision.

My son goes to beavers I don't stay there, but it is in a secure hall where once all the adults have dropped children off the door is locked until pick up time.

iammumtoone

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Or, had he not had the sympathetic audience of Mummy, he'd have got over it much sooner, carried on running after the ball and forgotten all about it until you came to pick him up.

In this instance no. My child is not one to cry at the slightest thing he hardly ever cries when he falls over etc, I heard the thud of the ball when it hit him and his face did come out in a bruise it must have really hurt him. I appreciate what you are saying some children do cry at the slightest thing and it would be best for them to just "carry on" but when my son cries he is hurt, the teachers at the school have even commented that its easy to know if he needs attention as he doesn't moan for the sake of it. I understand where the tutor was coming from as he did not actually see the incident but I was glad I was there on that occasion.

z.n

I had no idea there was such a polorisation of views on this. My kids have taken part in a range of activities- Beavers/Cubs etc do not want you to stay unless you are officially helping (and then you need to abide by their rules. ) That is different to a situation where parents are required to stay- that suggests some safety or other reason why one should if possible. I always took the view that if the rules said parents stay then that was what I did. From the POV of the organiser it can be very irritating when parents dump and run- especially when a child is hurt/upset/ poorly equipped/needs the boost of a hug/needs accompanying to the loo/parent turns up late to collect/activity is curtailed because of bad weather etc/effective discipline. There may simply not be the resources to cope, and a feeling that some parents are taking advantage.

I also maintain that even older kids need the psychological support of being watched for some of the time- they sure notice if everyone else's parent is watching and theirs is not (parents who work seem to make special effort to watch when they can IMO for this reason and you can see the children swell with happiness). Just common sense really depending on the situation.

Nicki

pigpen wrote: »

.

And I have NEVER been asked to stay once they were school age.. nor has it been expected of any of the parents even the ones who have nothing else to do because they don't have enough children, if it was requested then someone would stay with them..

In which case your criticism of the OP who made clear she WAS asked and for whom it IS expected she stay and your suggestion that she leave her son was a bit misplaced really.

If you are going to dish out judgment on others parenting, particularly in a situation where there is a range of reasonable and responsible options, you need to be able to take it too. Most of us have never lost a child. That's not the criteria used for Parent of the Year

duchy

It's a sports complex ? Go for a swim -I assume as you are job hunting you are unemployed so there will be a cheap rate for you.

Otherwise download a kindle program for your laptop and read....or use the time to revise your CV or write letters of application -none of these need wi-fi.

I find it a bit odd that an adult needs to ask for suggestions tbh though

Seanymph

I did OU courses....