Sprinklers and kids

Home Forums Decaffeinated Coffee Sprinklers and kids

Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #598415
    mommamia22
    Participant

    What do you do when you bring your kids to the park on shabbos to run around and play and they automatically run right for the sprinklers?

    #794475
    minyan gal
    Member

    If you cannot get them to listen to or obey you, then just make sure that you have a change of clothes for them.

    #794476
    gavra_at_work
    Participant

    I don’t see the problem in the first place.

    #794477
    Peacemaker
    Member

    They’re going into the water with their Shabbos clothes.

    #794478
    yeshivabochur123
    Participant

    obviously take them to a park without a sprinkler or to no park at all!

    #794479
    gavra_at_work
    Participant

    They’re going into the water with their Shabbos clothes.

    Dr., it hurts when I go like this…..

    So don’t take them in shabbos clothes!

    #794480
    mommamia22
    Participant

    I think what bothers me isn’t so much their shabbos clothing, but that it really isn’t a shabbos activity. The problem is that all parks that I’ve seen have sprinklers on in the summer. My kids MUST run, and bolt for the water.

    #794481
    apushatayid
    Participant

    So, they get wet. They wont melt. Neither will their clothes. Are you concerned about sechita, kibbus some other melacha?

    #794482
    aries2756
    Participant

    Obviously if you are taking them to the park on Shabbos, you are taking them in play clothes, so if they get wet, they get wet. If it is so hot that they need to get wet what’s the problem, they will dry off. If you need to dry them off don’t take them to that park or let them know that if they go into the sprinklers you will take them home immediately and not go back next Shabbos.

    The problem is not the park or the sprinklers the problem is your relationship with the kids and them not listening to you. You have to say what you mean and mean what you say. If you say NO then it has to mean NO and the kids have to believe that. If it means that YOU are stuck in the house with them as a consequence then you will all have to be stuck in the house until they get it.

    #794483
    Yatzmich
    Member

    Aries,

    You’re right on the money.

    Let kids be kids, what do you expect, they’re kids!

    #794484
    oomis
    Participant

    I don’t think it’s fair to take SMALL kids (too young to umderstand)to a sprinkler park where other kids ARE allowed to play in the sprinkler, and then tell them they can’t. And before you say, we do that all the time with kashrus with muktzeh, etc, it is NOT the same. They have kosher food to eat, and Shabbosdig activities they can do. Don’t bring them there on Shabbos, it’s like taking a diabetic child to a candy store.

    #794485
    mommamia22
    Participant

    To be honest, I am concerned with a) mar-is ayin and b) not so much actually squeezing the water from the clothing, but their perception that water play is a shabbos activity. I’m wondering what you all think about that.

    P.s. Aries-right on the money… The listening is an issue that we are working on right now… Thank you for your words of wisdom and strength. It helps me…

    So please, I’m curious about your opinions of sprinkler water play on shabbos.

    #794486
    aries2756
    Participant

    If they are very young and it is so hot that you can’t cool them off any other way, don’t make a fuss over it. Don’t tell them to do it and don’t make a big deal about it. If they get wet they get wet and don’t say anything. Just do an “oops your all wet, you need to dry off, or we have to go home straight away and take off your wet clothes”. Don’t reprimand them, and don’t ask if they had fun. Just leave it alone. If however you have a nice cool place you can take them where they can cool off and be comfortable, then that is a better option. If they are school age then it is not a good idea to confuse them. They will remember that they went into the sprinkler on Shabbos and you didn’t stop them and that is not good chinuch. Again, you have to make sure your kids know the rules. “I know that you would love to go into the sprinklers today, but it is Shabbos and we are not allowed to. Would you like to stay in the park anyway and not use the sprinklers or should we go someplace else? Maybe we can come back here tomorrow, but we can’t use it today” You can also remind them “If we do stay and you use the sprinklers, we will have to go straight home and I will be forced to give you a consequence for not listening to Mommy”.

    #794487
    mommamia22
    Participant

    Ok, so here’s the million dollar question. Is there something actually wrong with their going into the sprinklers on shabbos (halachikly)?? It doesn’t SEEM like a Shabbosdicke activity, but is there something ACTUALLY wrong with it???

    #794488

    it is proper to be Shabbosdik on Shabbos, therefore IF this is not Shabbosdik then it is ACTUALLY wrong.

    but you mean is it a specific issur, or malachah?

    i dont think so

    #794489
    apushatayid
    Participant

    If they are really young and dont understand the concept of melachos on shabbos or what it means “shabbosdik” there is probably no chiyuv due to chinuch. That is for a Rav to decide though.

    #794490
    kylbdnr
    Member

    Is it assur to go to the beach on Shabbos?

    #794491
    mommamia22
    Participant

    So why don’t more frum kids do it???

    #794492
    mommamia22
    Participant

    I think I just found the answer ro my own question under “music in the 9 days” thread (WIY answer).

    #794493
    aries2756
    Participant

    Do young kids carry on Shabbos? Do they open and shut lights? Do they play ball on Shabbos? Do you stop a 2 or 3 year old from riding his bike in the backyard on Shabbos? They learn as they grow and as their brains are able to understand more and more. It is up to you as the parent to realize what they are capable of learning and retaining at their level. You can only account for how you raise your children and you can’t account for how someone else does it.

    Do you force your 2 year old daughter to wear tights in 90 degrees? At what age do you think that is appropriate? At what age would you stop taking your son in the pool with you? At 4, at 5, at 6? Well there are different opinions among different people. Some would say that they would NOT trust their husband to watch their 4 year old in the pool. Others would say he is in cheider with a Rebbe and does not belong in the pool with women. To me a 4 year old is a baby and belongs with his mommy.

    #794494

    Its actually a problem to take kids into a park where there are goyim half dressed in these sprinklers in the first place.

    #794495
    oomis
    Participant

    Is it assur to walk to shul in the rain on Shabbos? You get wet. So you don’t squeeze out the water. Sprinklers are a vochedig activity, and though it might not be halachically an ISSUR to get wet, it still encourages the kids to do things that should not be done in the spirit of Shabbos.

    I thinks it would be better to find another park, or not take the kids to the part where the sprinklers are situated. One could say that sliding down a slide is also a non-Shabbosdig activity, but I don’t see any parents not letting their kids do that.

    #794496
    mommamia22
    Participant

    Always: HELLO! The kids who go in the sprinklers are like 4 years old!

    #794497
    mommamia22
    Participant

    Oomis: my point exactly. So if a slide is technically not a shabbos activity, but all do it, than a sprinkler, which is also not a shabbos activity, should technically not be treated as assur. I guess it’s to teach kids that bathing, squeezing etc is assur on shabbos, so we avoid all water so as not to confuse them (?!)

Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.