Politics Of The Playground

Spring finally sprung, it was sunny and deliciously 74 degrees with a hint of breeze. All I could think of at work was taking to Yum Yum to the park for the first time. For her to have a run around , go on the slides, the monkey bar, swings sets  alluhdat  #ambitiousmuch? Maybe a little but that was my plan.

Off we went , armed with juices boxes, cheerios and a couple of Go-Squeeze. We get to the park and the swings were occupied #bigkids. I figured we’ll do other things and come back when the big kids have had their go. We get to the slides and I realize my little lady was to little go on the slides by herself! I hadn’t thought of that; I was so wrapped up in my excitement that I did not realize that the playground equipment seemed to only cater to the big toddlers . Perhaps I could go with her, I thought  to myself. The mom standing next to me saw the look in my eyes and promptly informed me it was actually more dangerous  to go on with her…. Actually, now that I think about it, her kid was the only one at the small slide, I think she was trying to maintain their monopoly of the slide! Huff!

Off to the monkey bars we were!!! I lifted my dear child and tried to show her how to wrap her hands around the bar. Perturbed, she gave me a have-you-lost-your-mind-look followed by an emphatic  Nooooooh and  a pout which would have been followed by tears if I insisted. In retrospect,  what the bleep was I thinking trying to get my 15.5 month old to do a modified pull up?!

So, its back to the swings. Them blasted older kids were still there!!! – these were 11, 12 years olds, swinging upside down with their feet in the seat bucket - a half hour or so later.  Sigh… I guess we’d return after we chase doggies and birdies..... Birdies, a couple of Maltese and a Miniature Schnauzer later we headed back to the swings sets. And those damn kids were still there!!!  a line was beginning to form -  this should pressure them off I hoped.

As I joined the line, “It’s about time these kids got off the swings” one of the moms said. Me being new to this whole playground politics, I simply nodded in agreement, unsure what to do. Let's just get the ranger? I thought, wait.. is there a park ranger? Ugh! probably not. Maybe we can just order them off? but then, I'm sure we could get in trouble for that couldn't we? We should just yell at them from her...Probably not, we could cited for intimidation.. but how do we get them off?! I don't have all day for this, I still have dishes to do and dinner to fix, I murmured to myself. Where were their blasted parents btw? So, I do the typical thing of stewing silently while impatiently looking around in hopes that the adults with these kids will catch my annoyance and come scoop ‘em. #achievedzilch

Another 10 mins or so go by and one of the moms on the line, walked up to the oldest looking big kid, brought the swing to a halt and quietly told her it was time to get off and that they had been on long enough. I was so surprised and was convinced twas about to go doooowwwn. Funny enough nothing happened. Another mom walked up to the other girl and before you know what happening all 4 swing sets were vacated. Finally, we got our turn and my baby loved every second of it!!!

Lesson learned: Politeness gets you nowhere at the playground, man must fight for turn ;)