Your Kids, Your Problem

My partner and I are fishing at a local park. There’s a family near the pond having a day out with grilling and games. We’re far enough away that we don’t think they’ll be a bother.

Then, a couple of their kids wander over. They’re between six and eight years old, and the parents don’t seem to notice them coming over. They start sticking random sticks and tennis rackets into the water near us, but as we’re only really there to have a good time, we leave it be. Then, the kids start running around the edge of the pond, which is all pavement. They come close to our poles, which starts worrying us. 

Suddenly, one of the kids wanders over and starts pulling on our line. We ask him to stop, and he leaves for a few minutes before coming back over and doing it again. Again, we ask him to stop. This time, we move further down the pond, hoping they’ll leave us alone. Nope. They come right back up but make a game of trying to run under our poles.

My partner finally tells them to go back to their family because they’re going to get hurt if they don’t stop. The kids run off giggling, clearly not understanding.

A parent then comes storming over.

Parent: “You threatened my kids?!” 

We explained what had happened. The parent decided that somehow, their kids trying to mess with our stuff wasn’t their problem but ours, and if we had our own kids, we’d understand. We explained that we weren’t being paid to babysit their kids, so we were not going to watch them.

Eventually, I had to go grab a park ranger, who told the parent to either watch their kids and make sure they didn’t mess with us or our stuff again, or their whole group would get kicked out.

Parents, don’t be stupid. Watch your kids.