Yesterday Addy and I were at the park. There were a ton of kids there and a lot of distracted parents. I pushed Addy on the swing and played one of our favorite games. I push her high and then stand in front of her at just the right distance so her feet hit me. I say "I am just standing her minding my own business looking at the birds" and then WHACK Addy kicks me and I pretend to stumble and fall and yelp. She laughs SO hard that I can't help but laugh to the point of tears. Then I say "What the heck? A big bird just flew by and knocked me in the head." Well while we were doing this we got quite an audience and Addy was thrilled that all the kids were watching and laughing too. After 30 minutes I told her she needed to give another kid a chance to swing on the kiddie swing and we went to the slide. There were a bunch of boys throwing rubber at each other. Where were the parents? The playground is covered with rubber pieces from a local stamping company. Addy wanted to pretend she was driving the boat - they have a steering wheel on top of one of the jungle gym. A little boy saw Addy going for the steering wheel and ran to it and said "No, I am steering it." I threw him off the play set - no kidding that was just my mommy fantasy. I ACTUALLY said "Oh I thought you were going to go down the slide and protect the ship from sharks. We needed someone with big muscles to take on the sharks." The kid looked at me like I was from outerspace and then said "No I have a knife." (He was pretending he had a fake knife on his hip) If I was still in Houston I might have had to pat him down to make sure. So the kid left and slayed the sharks periodically coming back for more encouraging words and a handful of "fish." Where were the parents? In the meantime this little girl about 3 or 4 hurt her bottom on the slide (not bad but where were her parents). This was Daron and my conversation later that night.
Jen: "Addy and I had fun at the park today but where are all the parents (then told him about our games)"
Daron: "Addy and I play that game too. I don't know how the parents can't watch their kids closer"
Jen: "Is it our age"
Daron: "I don't know. You don't think we are smothering her?"
Jen: "I was the only adult on the jungle gym today......"
1 comment:
Jake and I took our little ones to the park the other day. There were tons of unattended kids there. The one parent we saw was IN THE CAR!! We left because the kids were so wild we were concerned that our littlest would get hurt. I believe "free range kids" can be a good thing, but only in situations when the environment is a bit more controlled than a playground.
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