Not sure if you've heard about this, but apparently it's becoming a popular trend: parents asking for a signed legal waiver when you drop your child off for a birthday party or a play date. And I'm not talking about the kind of waivers you sign when you go to a birthday party at one of those places with trampolines and bouncing structures. No! I'm talking about a regular birthday party or play date at someone's home!
WTH? An extreme parenting fail at it's best, if you ask me!
According to a woman who wrote to the Miss Manner's column on The Washington Post recently, her son was invited to a play date at a classmate's home and the child's parents requested that she sign a release of liability before she dropped him off. The woman thought it was unbelievably rude because it implied that she would sue should something happen to her child while at his classmate's home.
Read more in ¿Qué más?: Extreme parenting fail: Banning ice cream trucks at the park
The TODAY show also had a segment about this recently and a psychotherapist and a lawyer/mom were invited to discuss the issue, which they both agreed has become a more common trend. I'm not sure where this is happening, but I think it's totally ludicrous. It's no secret that we're a litigation-happy kind of country where everyone sues everyone for any little thing, but this is taking it way too far!
I don't really care if it seems rude or not for parents to imply that I'm going to sue them and therefore want to ask me to sign a liability waiver. My issue is with what could possibly be happening in that house after I drop off my child that would worry the parents so much as to think they need a waiver signed.
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Why can't we just go back to the times when children were allowed to be children and parents used to just be parents, meaning they wouldn't sue if their children got their knee scraped while playing tag?
What do you think? Have you ever being asked to sign a waiver for a play date? Would you?
Image via librarianmer/flickr
