Nothing beats a playground for an outing with toddlers /
preschoolers (which one applies to two-year-olds? I'm not quite sure
these days...) They're free, they offer exercise and fresh air, they're
a great way for kids to practice various gross motor skills and learn
to play nicely with others. For parents, it's a nice change of scene
from the house or backyard, requires relatively little mental effort,
is a fun way to interact with your kid(s) and can even have fitness
benefits. (I'm sure someone has done a piece for a parenting mag on
this kind of thing -- Playground Pilates! Tone your Triceps with your
Tots! Swings, Slides and Rock-hard Abs!)
Yes. Playgrounds are good.
The one we went to this morning -- Beaver Brook park in the suburban
oasis of Belmont -- was especially good, with its many different play area
options and -- best of all -- a big water play area with all kinds of
spray jets and big rocks for little 'uns to play on and amongst. We'd
never been there before, and it was well worth the trip.
But
here's why playgrounds also stress me out. The first is twin-specific.
(And probably also applies if you've got two small children close in
age.) If the playground is anything other than a very small "tot lot,"
it's a constant challenge to keep an eye on both kids at once, as they
will almost inevitably want to go in two different directions and do
two different things. Today at Beaver Brook, true to form, all Elsa
wanted to do was play in the water, while Clio only wanted to go on the
swings. The place wasn't set up such that I could push Clio and
keep Elsa in sight, and even if that was an option, it wouldn't have
been ideal. Because Elsa might have tripped and done a full-frontal
face plant, nosebleed and all, and it would have taken me that much
longer to get to her, and everyone would be thinking "where on earth is
that poor girl's mother? Somebody call social services!" Or she might
have blithely grabbed a bucket away from some other kid, and gotten
scolded by some judgy, helicopter mom thinking, "where on earth is this
girl's mother, and why hasn't she raised her daughter properly? Call
social services!"
All of which leads to other,
related reason that playgrounds stress me out -- the other parents. (If
you hadn't guessed already.)
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