Little Beans Cafe - St. Albert

This morning my girlfriend and I ventured into St.Albert to a new little place called Little Beans. Its basically a cafe with lots of kids equipment, and a train set. If you've ever been to Cafe O' Play, its the same idea, but with very different play equipment. More climb on structures. Little Beans is smaller though. I was shocked to find out that St.Albert has 2 little Cafe's like this, where you can take your kids to play, and have a coffee. Edmonton has 1 that I know of, and Sherwood Park has none. Not one. This really surprises me.

Like I said, Little Beans is smaller, but Eli was very happy to climb, and go down slides, play with the train table, and they even have tiny little toilets in the bathroom that made going to the bathroom very easy for Eli. Price wise, it was about the same cost when it was all said and done. $7 to get in (although for the month of the March it is $6 to get in.) They had fresh baking which was really nice, $2.75 for a mixed berry muffin, which was still warm, and a good size, and $1 for a chocolate chip cookie. When it was all said and done for snacks, tea, juice box, and admission to get in I probably spent about $15. I do find that fairly expensive, especially if you go to a cafe like that a few times a week. But Eli was happy to play, and didn't want to leave. My girlfriend had come and gone, and Eli was still happy to be there. I finally had to drag him out around 12:30pm, because we needed to get home for lunch and a well needed nap!

One thing I found really hard with this place was because the play structures are tall its hard to keep track of your child. When it's busy (which it was!) it makes it a bit harder to 1) make sure your child is treating other kids and 2) make sure your child isn't getting beaten on by anyone else

Which brings me to my next thing. I need your advice/thoughts.

There were a few times while we were at little beans that Eli had some run ins with a few other kids. Eli is not a very aggressive kid, and quite sensitive. Generally, if someone upsets him he'll start crying, or get upset and come to me. There were 2 or 3 older boys, and 1 girl I can think of that caused a few issues. One of the first boys was older than most of the kids, probably 6 or 7. It was very clear that he was causing issues all around, and at one point picked up the train Eli was playing with, ran a few steps and then chucked it onto the ground. Another time Eli was climbing up a ladder, and this boy was at the top, this boy stood there kicking his foot in Eli's face.This was 2 circumstances that I saw and dealt with. The mother was watching him but not fully as she was with 2 other moms. Another little girl (who was with another mom from the same table) at one point turned around and hit Eli bang square in the face not once but twice, and when I went up to her and told her hitting isn't allowed, she ran away from me.

Here's the last example. There were 2 boys who were brothers who were quite aggressive. One walked up to Eli while he was playing at the train table and swiped the trains right out of his hands and started playing with them. Another hit Eli, and a few other kids. The younger boy out of the 2 (probably around 5) kept walking up to everyone's table trying to drink out of juice boxes, and take their food. The mother was sitting with another mom, and she looked like she was closing a deal (maybe selling pampered Chef, or something along those lines) as she had a calculator out, magazine, and an invoice. My concern with this example is that multiple times that I had to go over to supervise or speak to her sons, she watched me, or her son hitting another child, and went back to what she was doing, and then would come over a few minutes later to check on things.

I know every kid has personalities, some are more aggressive, some are more sensitive. When you play in a public play place like this, you have to expect your going to run into confrontation with other kids. It happens. Even as adults we have confrontation with other adults but obviously we know (or most adults do at least!!) how to handle them appropriately. But here's my question. In a public play place like this where the parents are required to supervise their child, and they aren't as much as they should be, at what point is it appropriate to go over and say something to the parent/caregiver? If for any of these circumstances would it at some point be appropriate to go over and say something along the lines of "Excuse, but your son/daughter is being a bit aggressive with the other kids." Or, "Your son/daughter is trying to eat/drink our food."

What is the parent protocol with other kids and discipline. Is is appropriate if the parent isn't paying attention to their child to approach the child and tell them to stop their behavior or apologize? What are your thoughts. All of the circumstances above I didn't once approach any of the moms, but dealt (and I use that term loosely) with the child. Weather it be telling them that the toy they just took was Eli's toy he was playing with, or telling them we dont hit, or to be kind. Is this appropriate?

If your a mom of a more aggressive child, would it offend you if another parent came and approached you about your child if you weren't watching them as closely as you could be?

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Fill me in on how as a parent you handle these situations!