Turned away from a soccer match because of child.

I regularly take my 4½ year old to the football. He manages the first half and most of the second half. He was 3 when we took him first, but that was for an August game. He found it riveting as the below picture shows

DSCF3172.jpg


I think people are being a bit precious on how to treat children here. Everything you do with a child has an element of risk and let's be honest, the drive there was probably statistically more risky.
 
Skyfall said:
Where's the line?
Click to expand...

There is obviously a line your rave assuming it was what I understand to be a rave would be the wrong side of the line a league 2 football match in a modern football stadium wouldn't be it's health and saftey gone mad.
 
IIRC Roy Hattersly MP went to his first Sheffield Wed match age about 3 months....I seem to remember seeing him on TV talking about it and he was rather proud of the fact.

I have no idea why I chose to remember this fact above so many other more useful pieces of information my brain could've stored away for future use

As for the OP I don't really have an issue with someone taking a child that young to the match but I wouldn't want to sit next to them.
 
a1ex2001 said:
Congratulations on moronic statement of the day :rolleyes:

Where is the risk all I've heard in this thread is stupid statments.

NOISE: yes certain areas of the ground maybe a little noisey but I've very rarely been to a league 2 match where the volume gets up to annoying let alone the point it's going to hurt anyone.

STEPS: Doh don't take your baby upstairs.

THE BALL: (I assume this is the fast moving projectile) there is no more risk than in your local park I've been to hundreds of games and never had the ball land up anywhere near me.

COLD: It's no colder at the football than it is on the local high street

ROWDY FANS: It's not the 80's anymore and even then there were plenty of sections of the ground where you never saw trouble. In a modern all seater stadium it is ridiculously rare and if you sit away from the known chav sections I'd say people are more likely to be overly polite than cause a problem.

The kid was running a much greater risk of death in the car on the way there, if these people wanted to take there kid to the footy it should be there choice and the daily mail style suedo outrage in this thread is laughable and reflects badly on this forum.
Click to expand...

The fact is that the if anything happens to the kid on a high street then in most cases it's the parents responsibility. At the football stadium the responsibility for pretty much everything is shared with the club. If some one looses their footing and slips into the baby and it gets injured you can guarantee that the parents would want to sue the club, likewise if someone spilled a drink on the baby parents are straight back at the club.

The club are protecting their own interests and that of the people in the stadium. Not because they want to but because they are legally obliged to. Regardles of whether you think this is an infringment on peoples liberties or freedom of choice is upto you but the club did what they thought was right in light of the safety of the child. Personally I think they made the right choice.
 
It used to be usual practice to put your child out "to air" in the winter. They thought it was good for 'em. A child, properly wrapped up, next to their parents is not at risk. In any case, it's the parent's responsibility, not the clubs.
 
Mr Jack said:
It used to be usual practice to put your child out "to air" in the winter. They thought it was good for 'em. A child, properly wrapped up, next to their parents is not at risk. In any case, it's the parent's responsibility, not the clubs.
Click to expand...

Blimey, common sense.
 
Gilly said:
Um. How do you get to your seat?
Click to expand...

Be sensible, the obvious meaning of my statment was that if the steps at the football are such a terrible death threat you better not take your child upstairs at home or in GAP or any of the million other places they may face the terrible peril that is the stairs!

Loki said:
The fact is that the if anything happens to the kid on a high street then in most cases it's the parents responsibility. At the football stadium the responsibility for pretty much everything is shared with the club. If some one looses their footing and slips into the baby and it gets injured you can guarantee that the parents would want to sue the club, likewise if someone spilled a drink on the baby parents are straight back at the club.

The club are protecting their own interests and that of the people in the stadium. Not because they want to but because they are legally obliged to. Regardles of whether you think this is an infringment on peoples liberties or freedom of choice is upto you but the club did what they thought was right in light of the safety of the child. Personally I think they made the right choice.
Click to expand...

The club would be no more responsible for a kid in the situations you indicate than they would be for anyone else attending the game, as long as they have taken reasonable precautions to protect customers they are fine. There stance is ridiculous and if true would pt an end to mother and baby film screenings or taking your kid to the theatre.

dalin80 said:
i would turn them away for calling football 'soccer' too.
Click to expand...

This also makes no sense the English have used the word soccer since 1863 when we invented it so it is no more forign than the offside rule.
 
Last edited:
a1ex2001 said:
Be sensible, the obvious meaning of my statment was that if the steps at the football are such a terrible death threat you better not take your child upstairs at home or in GAP or any of the million other places they may face the terrible peril that is the stairs!
Click to expand...

I didn't take it to mean that, in the context of the rest of the post I read it as honest and forthright, not sarcastic. It's just as daft as the rest of it ;)

a1ex2001 said:
This also makes no sense the English have used the word soccer since 1863 when we invented it so it is no more forign than the offside rule.
Click to expand...
I agree with that. After all, how many people tune into Soccer AM and Soccer Saturday?
 
Gilly said:
I didn't take it to mean that, in the context of the rest of the post I read it as honest and forthright, not sarcastic. It's just as daft as the rest of it ;)


I agree with that. After all, how many people tune into Soccer AM and Soccer Saturday?
Click to expand...

;) accepted.

The Soccer thing always gets my goat I blame the plastic fans.
 
Regardless its a really bad day out for any kid.

The Zoo would be much better.
 
wordy said:
Footballs **** anyway, they should've taken him to see the Froch/Pascal fight last Saturday.
Click to expand...

Think of the danger though, the mother could trip sending the kid flying through the air, the kid could then land up in bettween the fighters and take a nasty blow which could prove to be fatal. I call for a ban on boxing for the sake of the babies them boxers are more dangerous than nestle baby milk.

Another thought that just occured to me, compare the number of trained first aiders and other mdics available in the event something should happen at a football ground with the number in your average town centre?
 
What gets me is why you'd want to take a 2 month old baby to a football match in the first place?
There not going to be interested and will end up causing more trouble that it's worth anyway.
 
Regardless of whether the parents wanted to risk it, the club was right. If anything happened, the club are liable due to the age of the child and the environment simply not being suitable. The Yank's "sue-first-ask-questions-later" culture and New Labour's Nazi-style Health and Safety laws mean no-one dare risk it, lest they be sued into oblivion and prosecuted to the letter of the law.

I go to the football, League 1 Hartlepool. Regardless of the grounds I've been to, from the Victoria Ground to The Millennium Stadium, down to Boston's York Street slum, the one constant I've seen is people who've had a drink. Add to that, when it's cold, a lot of people holding cups of tea etc. The amount of times I've worn my cuppa when we've scored - it's what happens at football matches.

Making the comparison to walking around town is total folly. Around town will involve popping in and out of shops where it's warm and a lot less drunks. 4 or 5 is about right in the most family-friendly stand in the ground, before that is way too young tbh.
 
Come to think of it tho, taking a 2 month old baby might be a good idea afterall. When it comes to nappy changing time you'll have something to throw at the referee :D
 
Kitchster_uk said:
Making the comparison to walking around town is total folly. Around town will involve popping in and out of shops where it's warm and a lot less drunks.
Click to expand...

drunks arent the only issue in town.
stupid people who do not take any notice of the fact that you have a buggy / pram are annoying, it gets knocked constantly in busy shop.

its cold outside, people are walking around with hot drinks, just as much chance of being burned by one.

i would argue that saturday shopping (especially at xmas) has a more hostile atmosphere than a football ground.
 
Morba said:
stupid people who do not take any notice of the fact that you have a buggy / pram are annoying, it gets knocked constantly in busy shop.
Click to expand...

Did they have a pram at the football ground? I would've assumed not, in which case it would be nothing like in the town.
The fact that a baby would be in a pram in town would protect it from 90% of things that could happen to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom