Tough Lessons Learned On The Playground  

Yesterday was one of those gorgeous, mid-winter days that manages to convince you April is just around the corner, even though the calendar still firmly states it's only the end of January. With DH at work for the day, G and I ventured out to enjoy the 60 degrees temperatures at our favorite local park.

Unfortunately, we encountered a decidedly chilly atmosphere once we arrived. While the winter sunshine had brought out a smile on my face, I was apparently the only one in such a good mood. The parents--and most of the kids--we ran into at the playground were downright grumpy.

The whole day got me thinking that the playground is kind of like a microcosm for the rest of the world; there is a social pecking order, high drama and bumps and bruises, both of the physical body and of the soul.

What we learned on the playground yesterday:
Lesson #1: Some parents use the playground as a free babysitting service. That's fine... as long as your kids are old enough. One mother sat in a lounge chair brought from home, reading a book and listening to her iPod (I've never been able to master the double-skills of reading and listening to music at the same time) while her FOUR YEAR OLD proceeded to break every rule--official and otherwise--of the playground. He climbed up the slide backwards (once while my daughter was in the process of trepidatiously sliding down), he climbed up the outside of the jungle gym and he pushed younger children out of the way when he chose to follow the rules and actually go down the slide.

Lesson #2: Never tell a two year old to hurry while climbing up a ladder. I--or rather, G--learned this the hard way.

Lesson #3: Don't bring anything out in public you don't want to share. In our hour at the playground, I saw a girl throw a hissy fit because a perfect stranger wouldn't let her ride the bicycle she'd brought from home; then, I saw a boy nearly start a fight when another kid wouldn't hand over the stuffed animal he'd brought from home. Even G & I learned this lesson firsthand--we'd come to the park fresh from the farmer's market, where we'd bought some carrot sticks for a snack. You guessed it: a few kids came toddling over, expecting me to hand over the carrots like it was snacktime at preschool.

Lesson #4: Dress for success... and the weather. Even though the temperature on my outdoor thermometer read 55 degrees when we left the house, I was skeptical; so I dressed G in a pair of corduroys, a turtleneck, a sweater and a light jacket. Within ten minutes of arriving at the playground, she was peeling off layers and obviously sweating underneath the bulk of her wardrobe. My bigger mistake was the pair of shoes I'd put her in (rather, she chose for herself; I simply acquiesced). Instead of putting her in a pair of tennis shoes, I let her wear her Mary Janes... which are still a size too big. I fear that decision may have played a role in Lesson #2.

Lesson #5: Kids--even toddlers--can be mean to one another. I know, this is a lesson Lindsay Lohan should have taught me in "Mean Girls", but I really thought the mean gene didn't quite kick in until grade school. I was wrong. G desperately wanted to play with a pair of three year olds, who told her she was gross and to go away. The parents of these two mean kids simply laughed and shrugged. Gee, I wonder where they learned that model behavior...

Lesson #6: I've never been so glad G's going to have a sibling. That way, we can avoid the loneliness (and my heartbreak) of Lesson #5.

Lesson #7: Your children are listening to you. I have been reading G the same book ("Someday" by Alison McGhee--a real tearjerker!) almost every night since she was an infant. There's a line in it that says, "Someday you will swing high, so high, higher than you ever dared to swing." I thought it was just another line in another book to G... until mid-swing, she screamed out, "I'm swinging higher than I ever dared to swing!" Bring on the tears, my child does listen to me.

What real life lessons have you learned through a "child's" situation?