Childrens participation in parkrun should always be for fun, and they should not be pushed beyond their physical capabilities or personal preferences regarding the way in which they participate. Most parents and carers, through their support and encouragement, help their children have fun and participate positively at parkrun, whether they are walking, jogging, running, volunteering or spectating.
Unfortunately, certain types of involvement and behaviours from parents or carers, ‘pushy parenting’ can have a negative impact on a child’ s experience and including enjoyment. It is important to remember, however, that children’s emotional response can differ from one another and from adults so it should not be assumed that there is always a safeguarding concern where a child is crying for example.
It is also important to remember that there is a broad spectrum of ‘acceptable’ parenting. parkrun’ s definition of ‘pushy parenting’ is when an adult’s encouragement or support of their child becomes aggressive, or when their expectations are unrealistic and cause upset, for example always expecting their child to be first finisher, shouting at them for not trying hard enough, or calling them names in front of others.
If you witness pushy parents at an event (2k or 5k), please follow the actions outlined below:
- Report it to the Run Director on the day as soon as is practically possible. Marshals out on the course should call or radio the Run Director so that the issue can be dealt with prior to the participants leaving the venue
- The Run Director, accompanied by another member of the team, should speak to the parent in a friendly, non-confrontational way, explain what has been seen and ask them for their version of events. Where possible, the chat should reflect a helpful intent, rather than it being a criticism or attack. For example ‘I noticed that your child seemed unhappy running today, is there anything we can be doing to help them have a better experience of parkrun?’
- Whilst it is important to respect different parenting styles, the Run Director should stress to the parent that children must always ‘parkrun for fun’, without any undue stress or pressure to race. It may be appropriate to explain the benefits of not pushing children, eg emotional wellbeing, increased confidence, a desire to continue participating if they’re having fun, etc
- If it is not possible to speak with the parent on the day, or if the Run Director isn’t comfortable doing so, you must still ensure it is reported to the Safeguarding Team; we understand these can be incredibly sensitive situations and we are more than happy to intervene directly on behalf of the event team where appropriate
In all instances where the Run Director has or feels the need to intervene, an incident report should be submitted. As with medical incidents, this should record as much detail as possible, including the name and parkrun IDs of the child and parent in question. A member of the Safeguarding Team will then contact the Event Team the following week to discuss appropriate next steps.
If the Safeguarding Team feels a certain threshold has been met, the incident will be reported to external services in order to best safeguard the child. This will only ever happen after a conversation with the Event Team to ascertain the details of each incident.
Confidentiality should be maintained at all times, and disclosure should take place on a ‘need to know’ basis.