UKC

So your trying hard on your chosen Boulder problem down at yer local climbing wall, All is going well and you've nearly got the last hold...And...POP!!!! you loose your vital foothold/handhold and you plummet heavily or elegantly to the safety of the extensive matting{hopefully} to rub yourself down and try again.
BUT...on your way down you miss a whizzing child by a fraction of an inch. You breath a sigh of relief that everyone is safe and all is fine.
BUT all is not fine...Where is the responsible Parent/Guardian?.....i checked before climbing and there were no kids around!!!....Is this going to happen again?.....Christ! what if i had landed on them?

I suspect that this experience has happened to more than just a few of you who frequent boulder walls throughout the UK.
So despite the stringent Health and safety, The Boulder inductions, the repeated shouts of"Don't run under climbers" i feel really strongly that it is only a matter of time before a child is seriously injured or Dies as a result of unsupervised bouldering.

Thoughts and solutions please folks.

In reply to scragrock:

I've had so many close calls, the worst being at Beacon in NW when upon finishing a problem I looked down to see a toddler sitting 4m below me. The mother nearby strolling her pram along, also the matting, was alerted by my partner while I hung around, said mother then looked up at me, saw the child and just smiled, kept sauntering along past before calling to her child to come along, unfathomable lack of care.

I'm also not a fan of infants being carried around the matting by a parent, especially as it often happens on a busy weekday evening here in Bristol.

Seems to me wall staff just need to be more stringent with minimum age rules and enforcing them. This is usually well done in centers where there is lead climbing but not so in bouldering specific gyms.

This has happened to me plenty of time but not with small children usually young teenagers and older children messing about performing cartwheels or what not but to be fair to them are usually overly apologetic , I have a 3 year old boy and I do take him along to walls on occasion but only with my partner and we take turns to supervise and climb we also ALWAYS make sure he is by our side ( half of the time he is happy messing around brushing holds and hanging of single holds ) .

In reply to scragrock:

Happens every other problem at the bouldering walls in London, not kids mostly beginners packed in like sardines. Still keep encouraging them in though, beginners sessions when half the routes are down for resetting, Groupon offers for anyone wishing to dabble in the latest fashion. Zero concept of capacity