Annoyed at the park today!

[sweets]

Was at our local little park this morn. Was pushing 3 little mindees on the swings when a lady walking her dogs said the usual thing that people say " ahh youve got your handsfull"! i smiled and told her i was a childminder.

She smiled back and asked me if i wanted to join her church craft group, i politley said no thanks, she went on saying how friendly they were and told me were it was, after asking about 3 times i very nicely told her i dont believe in church. she smiled again in a very i feel sorry for you way and walked off.

10 mins later as we were leaving the park one of her dogs , a big ugly poodle thing walked up to my mindees and had a sniff, she said its ok he is friendly and is just saying hello, this flippin dogs face was exactly at the same level as my mindees face.

i turned to her and said yes he does look friendly but is the same size as the little ones and they are a bit scared, she just smiled again and did nothing! the dog carried on following us a few feet so i turned round and said in a rather stroppy voice, can you please get hold of your dog as the children are feeling threatened. She eventually pulled him away.

I just walked off but felt like giving her a right mouthfull! :angry:

[RachelE]

I feel your anger!

I cannot imagine being at the same height as an animals face!
I know lots of people like dogs - but my dd until recently, was very scared of them.
I got fed up with the 'oh, its ok, he wont bite' 'Oh, he's friendly' - in the end I said, Yes, but when you are so small and very frightened, that really doesnt matter!

Some people dont think!

I'm scared of the dentists - but know that some dentsits are very very nice! ;)

Rachel x

[Ripeberry]

Sometimes it's worse when people just carry on smiling. Maybe she thought she was 'holier than thou'
Just ignore, they are not worth getting wound up over. As for the dogs, you did the right thing to move away, but it was a poodle. I'd be more worried about dogs that were jumping up and down at mindees or even growling.

That reminds me of a time a few years ago, I was going to my car in my own street and our neighbour was very lazy with her dogs and would let 3 of them roam the estate for half an hour a day but it could be at any time of day.
When they see someone they will all bark and come running at you growling.
I was so worried about them jumping up at the mindee that for some reason I just 'hissed' at them but it must have confused the dogs as well as one of them fell over and ran off whimpering. Must have been the 'Tigress mother' coming out
:D:laughing:

[flowerpots]

Sometimes it's worse when people just carry on smiling. Maybe she thought she was 'holier than thou'
Just ignore, they are not worth getting wound up over. As for the dogs, you did the right thing to move away, but it was a poodle. I'd be more worried about dogs that were jumping up and down at mindees or even growling.

That reminds me of a time a few years ago, I was going to my car in my own street and our neighbour was very lazy with her dogs and would let 3 of them roam the estate for half an hour a day but it could be at any time of day.
When they see someone they will all bark and come running at you growling.
I was so worried about them jumping up at the mindee that for some reason I just 'hissed' at them but it must have confused the dogs as well as one of them fell over and ran off whimpering. Must have been the 'Tigress mother' coming out
:D:laughing:

:ROFL1::ROFL1::ROFL1: Thats just really tickled me. :thumbsup:

Well done for keeping your cool sweets:D i dont think i would have. :o

[sweets]

to be honest i didnt feel the dog was a threat, it did look friendly and if it had been a little dog i wouldnt have bothered and prob would have just said to mindees that its ok hes just saying hello. but it was a big dog and was face to face with them!

the fact about the earlier church persuading made me dislike the woman before her pug ugly dog even looked at us! lol

[Bridey]

Our local 'happy clappy' holds a fantastic toddler and craft group every week. There is no religious undertone (and believe me, I'm a very suspicious ex-convent school survivor - if there were I would be able to spot it) and they have volunteers that get everything out, sort the craft theme and materials, make us tea and biscuits and then put it all away. We just turn up, play, do crafts, drink tea n juice, and leave. Its great!

[sweets]

Our local 'happy clappy' holds a fantastic toddler and craft group every week. There is no religious undertone (and believe me, I'm a very suspicious ex-convent school survivor - if there were I would be able to spot it) and they have volunteers that get everything out, sort the craft theme and materials, make us tea and biscuits and then put it all away. We just turn up, play, do crafts, drink tea n juice, and leave. Its great!

it wasnt a craft group for the children, it was for adults! lol

[Tatjana]

Maybe they have realised there's a market for adult crafts...after watching mums and cm's at the crafts table at toddler groups (referring to another thread) :laughing::laughing::laughing:

[ajs]

Our local 'happy clappy' holds a fantastic toddler and craft group every week. There is no religious undertone (and believe me, I'm a very suspicious ex-convent school survivor - if there were I would be able to spot it) and they have volunteers that get everything out, sort the craft theme and materials, make us tea and biscuits and then put it all away. We just turn up, play, do crafts, drink tea n juice, and leave. Its great!

One of our local churches holds a similar group, it is very churchy but the children love it. I am not into religion in nay way and if I was it wouldnt be Christianity but I take the little ones as they love it so much and get so much out of it

[Baildon bears]

I hate the dog thing, I was out the front in the hols as my mindees were playing on the scooters and an old lady walking her dog let her dog get right up close to one of my mindees, my mindee looked terrified, and the lady said" its ok you can stroke him" I told her, I dont think she actually wants to stroke your dog thanks. but she stood there letting this dam dog sniff the kids:angry:, some people just have no idea.

[curlywurly]

I totally agree with you on the dog thing and think they should be on leads when children are around or at least called back when they wander near children, even if they are friendly!

As for the church thing I seriously think you should join..........ud be great!:laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::lau ghing::laughing:

[sweets]

I totally agree with you on the dog thing and think they should be on leads when children are around or at least called back when they wander near children, even if they are friendly!

As for the church thing I seriously think you should join..........ud be great!:laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::lau ghing::laughing:

Yeh right! lol i could join in with M and her singing then! lol

[Bridey]

it wasnt a craft group for the children, it was for adults! lol

What?! Now that is strange!! Why would she ask random strangers without even knowing if they did crafts? Wierd :D

My poor old dog used to completely ignore children when out off her lead - if they tried to pet her she would just blank them and walk past - she'd had enough of them by that time of the day!

[Demonjill]

This annoys me......:mad:

Big dogs bounding up to me are scary enough( and i love dogs had loads when was growing up) never mind the wee ones ..... but when the owners casually say " O its ok "he" is a big softy he wont hurt you hes alright with children " etc etc and im like that may be so but maybe the children are not "alright" with dogs?????:angry:

Also when i was on pre birth to three course we watched a film with a camera attatched to buggy child was in and it showed life from that childs perspective - it was a bit scary especially when dogs were coming up and cars just appearing etc - this was in a front facing buggy and was one of the reasons a parent facing buggy is advised for these precious first years as children look to you for confidence and to see your reaction with everything - very intersting!!

[ChocolateChip]

Where I live the path to school is next to a bit of open ground and recently a few families have decided to start walking their dogs on the school run. Okay, I know they have every right to do so but it really annoys me that they let their dogs bound around loose when they know a lot of other children will be passing right by them. The dogs are friendly enough and I don't dislike dogs but some of them are huge, a couple of them are very boisterous and a toddler (not one of mine) nearly got knocked flat the other day because the dogs were so busy chasing a ball and each other they didn't see him :mad:
And even if they do pick it up, (and some of them don't) the last thing I want to see every morning is a dog opening it's bowels in plain view :eek: :angry:

[EmmaReed84]

Grrr some people are so thoughtless. My eldest is terrified of dogs, don't know why but he just will not go anywhere near them. Which is fine by me. The other day we were walking and this lady with a dog walked past and DS watched this dog and sort of hid behind me. This woman tutted at him and snarled "He isn't going to bite you for god's sake!"

Well I won't repeat what I said to her, but needless to say I bet she thinks twice before snarling at a child again!

[mandy moo]

Just another side to the story, :o
Skye our German Sheperd is huge, and extremley soppy.
But as huge as she is, she was/is absolutley frightened stiff of strangers, especialy other dogs and children, and cowers when they come near her.
(we have unfortunatly, come to believe she was bullied by her previous families pets, 4 small pug type dogs and the 2 younger children in the family, seen by DHs own eyes when he went to pick her up, they also had 2 cats)

So when we're out, we stop and let them go by, whilst all the time shes trying to hide behind me.
But, I cant tell you how many times, adults will let their children come right up, without asking if its ok to touch, and let them try to pet/stroke her.
Why do people let their children do this?

However to cut a long story short, she is getting better whilst we're out, and loves the minded children and is very protective of them (but thats another story in its self!)

[littlecheeks]

Was at our local little park this morn. Was pushing 3 little mindees on the swings when a lady walking her dogs said the usual thing that people say " ahh youve got your handsfull"! i smiled and told her i was a childminder.

She smiled back and asked me if i wanted to join her church craft group, i politley said no thanks, she went on saying how friendly they were and told me were it was, after asking about 3 times i very nicely told her i dont believe in church. she smiled again in a very i feel sorry for you way and walked off.

10 mins later as we were leaving the park one of her dogs , a big ugly poodle thing walked up to my mindees and had a sniff, she said its ok he is friendly and is just saying hello, this flippin dogs face was exactly at the same level as my mindees face.

i turned to her and said yes he does look friendly but is the same size as the little ones and they are a bit scared, she just smiled again and did nothing! the dog carried on following us a few feet so i turned round and said in a rather stroppy voice, can you please get hold of your dog as the children are feeling threatened. She eventually pulled him away.

I just walked off but felt like giving her a right mouthfull! :angry:

to be honest i cant really see the problem? the lady was tying to be nice by inviting to along to a grounp and then her dog which by the sounds of it wasnt being threatening came near the children? by your reaction you will make the children scared. i agree we need to be careful about strange dogs near the children but i dont think this was that bad.

[primula]

I own a dog(small) But I think it must be scary to be faced with a big dog as a toddler! If a horse came up to me in the park I would have serious toilet problems:laughing:

[Debster]

Its the one's that let their dogs do a great big steaming poo in the park and leave it for someone to walk in !! that really gets me and if I see someone doing that sorry but I have to say something to them its disgusting:angry: