AITA for not letting other children bother my child?

A Reddit user is facing criticism from other parents for not letting other children interrupt or take over games his youngest child is playing at a family-friendly pizzeria. His daughter enjoys playing the games but has become upset after repeated incidents where other kids push her aside or attempt to take over the activities.

The user has intervened multiple times, asking the other children to wait their turn or leave his daughter alone. However, during a recent incident, the parent of another child accused him of being an AH for not teaching his daughter to share and for creating unnecessary conflict. Now he’s questioning if he handled the situation poorly. Read the full story below to see the details.

‘ AITA for not letting other children bother my child?’

We have a monthly plan to a national pizzeria chain where children go in and play games while eating pizza. My children love it here, especially the youngest, and we go often. I’ve noticed that my youngest has been asking me to spend the entire time with her lately and so I have, going to each game and ride with her, not knowing why but just being supportive (fyi I don’t leave her by herself, she’s either with her mom or her siblings).

Well about a month ago during one of our visits I walked away for a minute and when I turned around I noticed she was upset, won’t tell me why. Spent more time with her and everything seemed fine. I walked away but this time I kept an eye on her. Little boy came up, pushed my child aside, and started playing the game. I stopped, told the boy that she was playing and to wait. My daughter is upset so we walk away.

He comes back and does it again, upsetting my daughter. My daughter gets upset and tries to walk away but I stop her and tell the little boy he needs to leave and he’s not allowed to play with her. A few visits later and it happens again with another child, I tell them no and that she doesn’t want to play. Yesterday we get 1 game in before interrupted. Little girl comes up and tries to push her out of the truck game.

I tell her no and that she needs to leave, she refuses. The game ends, she grunts, I tell her no and she needs to move. She full force try to push my daughter out and I prevent my daughter from falling out. the little girl cries and leaves. We played one last game of air hockey. Same little girl comes over, I stop and tell her she needs to leave us alone. She cries and her mom begins yelling at me.

She is mad because I refuse to let her daughter play with us and when I tell her that her daughter was not trying to play with us but instead tried to take over the games we were playing and that it upset my daughter, she said I upset her daughter by not letting her play and that I was an a**hole because of it and the fact I was preventing my child from learning how to share and “dealing with difficult and uncomfortable situations”.

Another parent says that this is something I do all the time and that I am an a**hole to children because I won’t let her kids play with my daughter. She said “children are children” and that if my daughter is uncomfortable in these situations then I shouldn’t be bringing her around other children. Speaking with an employee I asked if I was wrong and they said no. So, AITA?

Take a look at the comments from fellow users:

sneksnacc −  NTA. This sounds like the parents are not giving their kids enough money to play the games. So the kids end up b**lying other kids by taking their games. It also sounds like they are feeding off each other seeing another kid do it. It might be good to try and help your daughter learn to deal with this herself. But I’d lean more to the side these kids are being predatory aholes – and that’s no way to spend a day out. F the parents, give them a piece of your mind.

ContemplatingFolly −  NTA. I am not sure I get why all of these children are being so ill behaved. Protecting your kid from bullies so they feel safe is a good thing. The other parents, not watching and teaching their children to take turns, are the AH’s.

GrandmotherWill0w −  Ugh sounds like Chuck E. Cheese. When I was 16 I pushed a 9 year old because he shoved over my 4 year old niece who was playing one of the toddler aimed toys and took over her game, he didn’t seem to see that I was standing right behind her taking a photo of her to send to her mom and saw his entire s**tty behavior, naturally that kid started backpedaling once he was caught, little b**t. No regrets. Have always hated that place because of the same behaviors.

Cangal39 −  NTA pushing and shoving isn’t “playing” or “kids being kids” it’s b**lying. If it happens again alert staff.

Temporary_4634 −  NTA. Their children are probably all bullies! You handled it a lot better than I would have, and I’m only an aunt. This happened years ago. A kid pushed my nephew while he was on the slide. I looked around and asked who he belonged to. No one answered. I, still infuriated, went and screamed at the kid, “Don’t you ever push anyone off of the slide like that!”

CarryOk3080 −  Nta…Does this establishment not have STAFF? I would be losing my mind on staff to deal with this. If that parent had an issue with me telling their child to fck off and go play else where that parent won’t like what I have to say to them. What part of the world is this in so I can avoid it all these people sound AWFUL.

AffectionateCable793 −  NTA. Those parents should teach their kids to respect others decisions when they are told no.

SignificantEcho79 −  NTA her response is just lazy parenting. She doesn’t want to deal with her kids bratty behavior so makes it someone else’s problem. You did the right thing. What the other children were doing amounts to stealing.

WhyAmIStillHere86 −  NTA. Talk to center management, because I assure you that your kid is not the only one being victimised, the pizza place is almost certainly losing business over this.

Aware_Welcome_8866 −  Well now you know what happens when you confront a parent about their child’s behavior. I understand your actions. I suggest giving your child some words to say in these situations, such as “You’ll get a turn when I’m done,” or “Lord, I’m not playing with the devil today!” You get the idea. Support her but gently push her to be a self advocate. It’s a skill that will last a lifetime. NTA.