July 17, 2002

• Perceptions.

  
  

  I had two toddlers, not just one yesterday - as my girlfriend who has had two children entirely too close together - was about to crack up if she didn't get some respite. So I took the oldest one, a lovely little girl and resolved to run both kids ragged until they slept like the dead all afternoon.

  
  

  I have a plan when I do this. I walk them the 6 blocks to the local park, take along a ball and basically do not allow them to sit still for a second. Even the swings are strictly rationed.

  
  

  So we get to the park, and the two littlies are wobbling around, bumping into things, attempting to climb up the monkey bars, slide down the big slide and run around without too many tumbles. I am sitting, nodding indulgently, with a beatific smile on my face, enjoying the sight of little bodies learning how to do things.

  
  

  Then disaster.

  
  

  A group of 13 to 14 year old boys entered the playground. Now, I should mention that this is a small local playground, one set of swings, two slides and various climbing apparatus, all within touching distance of each other. And these boys were large and gangly, and well... LOUD. They had huge sneakers on, baggy pants, baseball caps on backwards and cigarettes behind their ears.

  
  

  They were pushing and shoving and wrestling with each other as boys of that age do. Running around, shouting curses and generally behaving like teens without parents.

  
  

  My charges looked very small and very vulnerable suddenly.

  
  

  I sat there, mentally sighing, thinking that I'd end up having to remove the toddlers from the playground because they were not going to be able to play safely with these apes around. Or I was going to have to put on my po-face and be a big ugly mean grownup and tell these boys off for not watching what they were doing. And resenting it, because dammit, why should I have to police someone else's kids? And seriously, these kids didn't look like they were going to listen to me anyway.

  
  

  And then the biggest one, turned to my kid, and said "Wanna play?". And her whole face lit up. She was so impressed with being included. And for the next hour and a half, these big, shambling boys played. They played  'Chasey' with the two year olds - running in slow motion so they could be caught, pushing fat little bodies on the swings, falling to the ground so they could be attacked by chubby hands and altered the whole nature of their games so the littlies could join in.

  
  

  And as they left, I said "Hey thanks for being so nice to my kid", and they turned in unison and said "It was fun" and blushed to the limit of their freckles and jug ears.

  
  

  Nice boys. Just goes to show, you can't judge a kid by his big sneakers and his loud mouth. Just goes to show that I have some growing up to do.

  • 7:11 pm
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