I hate the park

Does anyone else hate the park?I have a 2 year old and a 3 month old. My 2 year old is in daycare full time when I'm working, but only goes 1 day a week while i'm on mat leave until 2019. I rarely take her to the park. Whenever I do, it's the same thing: she's still small enough that I have to watch her while she's playing on the play structures, and she really only wants to play with me while we're there. But, there's always some other kid, usually around 4 years old, who hangs on to us and will NOT leave us alone. Every time. This kid is always talking my ear off, trying to play with us when my kid is not interested, often playing too rough, etc. They are just dragging my attention away from my kid and it drives me nuts. I find it so awkward. This other kid's parents is always just sitting there on their phone or whatever, but usually close enough to watch us, so they're just sitting there watching me interact with their kid when all I want is for their kid to disappear. I've tried super gently telling a kid that mine is too small to play with him or whatever, and then that kid started yelling at me, "you don't want to play with me! I have no friends and you won't let me play with you!" It was so embarrassing. I find every park interaction so painfully, excruciatingly awkward I just can't wait to get the hell out of there. I ended up taking my kid home before she's ready because I can't stand being there any longer.ALSO - toys. If I bring my 2 year old to the park and she sees another kid playing with a toy she's interested in, she'll go over and maybe touch it, and that kid will melt down, "no that's MINE!" so I have to tell my kid, 'that's not yours...' and usually the other kid's parent comes over and half-heartedly tries to encourage their kid to share, but the kid is already upset and I just want to get the hell out of there asap. If WE bring toys, inevitably another kid will take the toy away from my kid. Sometimes a parent will say 'that's not yours,' sometimes they'll just ignore it. I always tell my kid, 'it's good to share..,' so the message i'm sending my kid is that other kids toys she can't touch, but other kids should feel free to take her toys. Then, what the hell do we do if we want to leave the park and other kids are playing with my kid's toys? Do I walk over to some kid I don't know and take the toy away? One time some other parent had brought some sand toys, and they were leaving, and my daughter and some other kids were playing with them. I saw they were leaving, and said, 'oh, time to give these back, these people are leaving!' and the other parent said, 'oh don't worry about it - keep playing. We're always at this park. I'm sure they'll be here when we come back.' So later I just walked away leaving some random toys behind. Is this what I'm supposed to do? Every toy we bring to the park should be considered gone if another kid plays with it?This whole rant is just to say I can't do it. I hate the park. It's just constant social awkwardness and embarrassment. My kid really likes it though. What else can we do to fill our time? Does anyone else avoid parks to avoid having to navigate this minefield of embarrassment? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2ukUWyI