Mom flamed for complaining 100cm daughter disallowed into Tampines Ikea play area

Ikea changed the height requirement after renovation.

Belmont Lay | February 07, 2018, 06:29 PM

A mother is being flamed on Facebook for complaining that her daughter was disallowed from entering the Småland play area in Tampines Ikea.

The reason?

The mother felt Ikea was being too strict with their discretionary entrance as the girl had supposedly only missed the height requirement by a bit, and people online are feeling like the mother is self-entitled.

Flamed

A post of the mother's lamentations and subsequent flaming appeared on All Singapore Stuff on Feb. 6, 2018, which appeared to have lifted and posted the complaint wholesale.

Comments flaming mother

The parent is being flamed with comments accusing her of having a self-entitlement mentality and turning the tables on Ikea regardless:

Original post on Ikea

However, the original post on Ikea on Feb. 3 tells a slightly different story as it is different in its phrasing:

Doctored All Singapore Stuff post:

Ikea Tampines truly disappointed this little girl with the implementation of height limit between 100cm to 120cm.

"My girl age 5 with around 100cm was rejected from entering the playground, and was deeply upset seeing her brother allowed to enter. We as parents also failed to keep our promise made to the little girl before we came. We hope you can revise your policy and review the reasonableness to set height limit rather than age limit."

In Singapore, kids must study, cannot play? :(

Credit: Stephanie

Original Ikea post:

Hi Ikea Tampines, we appreciate your effort of renovating the Smaland. However you truly disappointed us especially our little girl with the implementation of height limit between 100cm to 120cm. My girl age 5 with around 100cm was rejected from entering the playground, and was deeply upset seeing her brother allowed to enter. We as parents also failed to keep our promise made to the little girl before we came.

We hope you can revise your policy and review the reasonableness to set height limit rather than age limit.

[related_story]

Exchange between mother and Ikea on the original post:

Moreover, there was an exchange between Ikea and the parent in the original post, which revealed what the real gripe was about.

What the issue is about

From this original post and the replies by both parties, it is clear that the mother was taking issue with the discrepancy between height requirements for Ikea in Tampines and Alexandra.

The playground in the Tampines branch allows access to children between 100cm and 120cm, while the Alexandra branch has a wider allowance between 90cm and 130cm.

To be fair to Ikea, it mentioned that the Tampines branch is newly-renovated with new requirements and it will pass on the feedback from the mother.

And from the response, the mother appears fully cognisant of her responsibility.

The mother said in response to Ikea that to enter the play area, a waiver has to be signed by the parent to not hold Ikea to account if anything goes wrong, which technically should be enough to protect both parties' interests:

"... before any kid is allowed to enter Smaland, disclaimer on IKEA responsibility will be signed and agreed by parents, so there shouldn't be any pseudo concern on who to complain when thgs happen."

Here’s a totally unrelated but equally interesting story:

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