Playground Lessons

A few days ago I took my children to the playground near my house.  I have to be honest, I was worried.  It would be the first time I took my three-year-old son and 18-month-old daughter to the playground together, alone without my husband.  Or my mom.  Or anyone else coming along for the trip with the soul purpose of lending me a helping hand with the kids.  Could I do it?  What if they took off in different directions?  What if I lost sight of someone?  What if…what if…?

As I ran with my daughter in my arms in an effort to keep up with my galloping son who saw the jungle gym in the distance and shrieked in pure delight, I thought…this is never going to work. 

But once we started playing, I quickly noticed something pretty amazing happening around me.  The park was full of kids and their parents, grandparents, babysitters and other caretakers yet everyone was looking out for each other.  When one dad’s voice called out for his son with a slight shakiness as if to say, “Ut-oh, I think I lost him,” a grandmother from the other side of the jungle gym cried out, “I see his feet coming through the covered slide…I got him!”  When a little girl fell down and scraped her knee, another parent on the other side of the slide walked over to the girl’s mom and offered her brand new tube of Neosporin.  This type of looking out for each other happened the entire time we were there.  Was this for real?  Or, was I on candid camera?  The sense of community was almost too unbelievable to, well, believe. 

It got me thinking: Why is it we can watch over each other at the local playground but not in our every day life?  As we walked back to the car, I silently vowed to be more aware of the way I act towards other caretakers.  We’ve all been in the grocery store when a parent is struggling with their child or at the toy store when a caretaker may not be screaming they lost their child, but they have that panic look across their face and you know something is not right.  Or, in the mall when a child finishes his snacks and begins screaming as his mom desperately tries to find another goodie in her bag when we ourselves have a full box of cheerios in our purse.  Somehow along the way our society moved to an individualist one where it’s considered “rude” to put our noses in someone else's business.  That day on the playground taught me when it comes to parenting, it does take a village.   There’s nothing wrong with offering another caretaker a hand because the truth is we never know when we are going to need that hand in return…whether on or off the playground.

Sincerely,

From the Stork’s Nest~

Liz