It's pretty much inevitable.

I would rather fail the song.  So I miss a few steps and nicely tell the kiddies to back away, but one of them snuck up from behind. :(  Thankfully, the parent didn't get all up in my face and was very understanding.

Oh man, I hate it when someone comes to watch you play, and they're leaning on the bars (coz I don't use them) and their feet ALWAYS manages to get in a spot where you step on their foot when  you go to press the back arrow.

 It's so off-putting.

Countless times I have a little kid and their parents watching. Usually the parent holds the kid back, but you get the unavoidable situation where the parent goes to get quarters for the merry-go-round and the kid goes nuts at the machine. I try my best to avoid them (since I'm cheap and don't like losing my round from minor inconvenience), but it tends to go wrong.

This happens to me too; mostly when I play doubles.  A little tyke will hop on the opposite side and either I won't notice them and collide, their parent will hastily remove them, or they will get scared and hop off.

Once a youngster hopped on the mat while I was selecting my next song.  I tried to explain to him politely that I would need to stand where he was standing in about 30 seconds but he was too young to understand what I was saying and his parents were nowhere to be found!  (Who would leave such a young child unattended?)  With about 3 seconds before the song started my friend put his hands on the child's back and gently escorted him off of the pad.

I have this same problem at home... I have three kids... need I say more?

man i have had some problems at my Gameworks...there were kids watching me and one little girl was almost going to be plummeted by my footing, but THANKFULLY my brother's girlfriend got her before i could move to the other mat...after the song ended, the little girl was still there and her dad was watching and he told me "that was very good" and i responded "yea i know...but sir, PLEASE keep a watch on your kids next time you see someone up here, they could get hurt." As a matter of fact, i was going for another round at the time, but i decided i'll let em play and find something else to play instead...they did play and i was happy and they were happy and eventually they left. Thankfully i have people with me when i go, so they crowd around and give me my space that i need. =)

very inevitable...

sometimes, when I play with a partner, my hands move so fast, so... I can hurt my dance partner.

I've never step on my dance partner, butwhen I slip in the pad, usually hurts. 

lol, kids just sortof stare, wide eyed at the local ITG players here. We occasionally they'll jump on though. The worse thing that happened was.... I was playing July and this kid decides to run and jump in front of me. He lands on the pad. I step on his foot, he SCREAMS! His parents come running while I'm playing the song. I'm just stepping away trying to get my first pass. He's crying what happened to his parents. His dad PUSHES me off the pad and starts freaking out on me. "How couldn't you have seen him?, etc" I just say, "Where were you when he jumped on the machine in front of me? Oh yes, you were standing watching a MVC2 match while you're son was tugging on your arm (lol, I'm an observant b-ast-ard, aren't I?). And clearly weren't paying attention to what he was doing. Now, I can explain what happened or show you what happened. *friend hands me video camera* Please pay attention to your kid more next time."

Yeah, I'm an ***. I'm well aware of that, but, is it really being an ***, or is it just being brutally honest? I say both. >:] 

This one time sticks out in my mind. I was playing some song on 5th Mix (probably Shooting Star) going for PA. It's one of my favorites, so I was really focused on getting the best score I could. A kid about half my size steps onto the left side to watch, and I don't really care because I'm busy playing. After some time he asks, "Can I help?" I was so distracted that I took it to mean he wanted to mistakenly help me by shadowing on the other side, and quickly said "Sure." A couple seconds later, I ended up hitting something other than the pad on my left arrow =/

I think the problem is that these kids don't know the difference between this and Spider Stomp, lol. 

Everybody have this problem =S but is worst when I play in a arcade. When I play a double always there's a child steping in the other side of the panel =S

lol @ spider stomp. I cannot FC that on hard. It's harder than Quadding Determinator. :P

ive stepped on someone before. when i was going for AA on supernova to play faxx. (I play love shine, and sometimes honey punch) some kid and it was the down arrow of course... and his parents came over and was all like waht halpend waht did yall do to my keed. how kan yall not  cee mah keed. yall gawt ala nerv tah keep playin afta yall stepped on mah keed. wahts urall prawblam mahn?

then im all like... well sir it was a certain misunderstanding with the corralation of your child being unattended while you shop the misty mall looking for things...

WAHT??? waht yall sayin bohy? thet i cant watch ova mehy keeds. thet ima bawd fatha mahn yall don kno meh. yal can juhdge meh.

Lol.

its true. that does happen...

I haven't stepped on anyone, but I've been stepped on.  Playing versus a friend, me on P2, him on P1. I cannot explain how it happened, but at one point I hit a left, he hit a right, and he managed to step on my foot.  I have no idea how he managed that, as neither of us have clown feet.  I just laughed about his "Tasmanian Devil" dancing style afterward.

IT seems to happen to me quite a bit. I have had kids as old as two sneak onto the platform while I am playing. I have had a few near misses and most of them happened when playing doubles. Sooner or later, someone's gonna end up with a broken foot, and it ain't gonna be me.

If the kid is old enough to understand not to step on the pad while someone else is playing, then I have no qualms with running them over. If the kid is too young I'll try and scoot around them and avoid them because it's not their fault their parent isn't watching them. If their parent IS watching them, though, I have no problems running them over. And I've done that to quite a few kids, and they sure learn quick to get off the pad. 

While it's extremely rare around me, but I try to tell them while I'm in-song to back off the dance stage as gently as I can...  but if they're stupid enough place their feet on the down arrow, it's their own fault if I accidentally step on them.

i kicked a child across the room once. i felt bad max 300 on doubles the crossovers, i just rammed into the kid and kicked him in the legs and her flew. so bad.

holy crap! lol, across the room? I consider myself lucky I guess....everytime I play, there are no kids around.....but then again, I don't live near any machine locations, so I hardly get to play on them -_-, and the pads are only 3/4ths responsive....so I stick to CS alot. Someday imma getting a Cobalt flux to fix my predicament.

Cartoon heros free styling. I jumped really high and my leg went back and nailed him in the face. His dad got mad.... I just said, "okay." casually as he *****ed while I was playing 321 Star.