I'm honestly curious and would like some opinions.
Today was a birthday party for a kid in my son's kindergarten class. They had it at a really cool place called "Monkey Joe's" and there were also 2 other birthday parties going on, as well as the normal visitors/families coming for a good time.
The entire time we were there, there was a group of about 15 or so parents who sat at their tables either watching TV, texting, or talking with each other while their kids ran around. There were parents who were walking around keeping an eye on their kids, and there were kids who were running around unsupervised. The unsupervised kids were falling, pushing people down and being totally obnoxious. 4 girls about 9-11 years old shoved past me, knocked my 2 1/2 year old down and stepped on her even though I told them to stop and be careful when they blew past me. When I told them to be careful, one of them turned around and gave me a dirty look, then proceeded to run through the toy. Their parents were sitting around with cell phones, and another had headphones in and looked asleep.
Another group of kids, these were girls too, were laying inside one of the tunnels jumping on each other and refusing to let anyone through. My daughter had already gone through, and I was asking them to let me through so I could get her. They all just ignored me. Finally, I said MOVE! I need to get my daughter, and one looked me right in the face and goes, "CHILL! She's already off the ride" and went back to what she was doing.
There were kids who were kicked off of the rides for being too rough and cutting in line, and their parents had nothing to do with them until their kid was told they couldn't play. Then the parents put away the cell phone and proceeded to rip into the employee because junior wasn't allowed to play anymore. It says on rule posters EVERYWHERE that adults are to watch any child under the age of 18 while they play on the equipment.
I understand that parents don't like to hover over their kids, but completely ignoring them while they are in a public place like that?
I want to hear some opinions on this, because it's common place enough that there has to be another side to the story. Something like, "Kids need to have freedom" "Parents need a break and this is how they do it" or something like that. SOMETHING that would justify this.