More Tales from the Park

In my last blog, I wrote about a negative experience at the park. So we went to a different park on Monday. This park was a much nicer park (better maintained, newer, better views, etc.) and I don’t know if that means nicer kids, but in this case it was true. Nicer parents too. All the parents were more involved with their children than their cell phones and/or cigarettes at this park. Although the day was not without incident.


The play structure there had a slide. Nothing special about this slide. One turn in it, about 6 feet of slide. Not exactly the kind of slide you can get up to Olympic bobsled type speeds where you have to worry about losing control. Jonah handled this slide with ease. I repeat, a 19 month old handled this slide with ease. A six year old girl, however, did not. I’m not sure what happened, but somehow she launched herself over the side of the slide and landed on the ground with a sickening thud. Granted, she was only about six feet off the ground, so there was no major injury, but it was pretty apparent this was the first time she’d ever had the wind knocked out of her. The reactions of everyone involved were awesome. The little girl has this terrified look on her face because she can’t breathe. Her older sister is rolling her eyes because little sis was embarrassing her. Dad is trying to figure out what happened and is trying to calm down his daughter, who is now breathing in very short, exaggerated gasps. Mom meanwhile seems more concerned with her daughter holding up the flow of playground traffic than with her daughter’s well-being, trying to usher everyone away from the bottom of the slide so other kids can continue to use it.

From the “kids say the darndest things” department, last night Jonah and I are swinging on the swings at our little neighborhood park. I’m pushing Jonah, and this little girl comes over and asks me how old Jonah is. Here’s the rest of our conversation:

Me: He’s about a year and a half old.
Little Girl: I’ll be five on my next birthday.
Me: Wow, when’s your birthday?
Girl: June.
Me: So you’ll be five soon. You’re birthday is coming up!
Girl: Yeah, but I don’t think my mom will make it.
Me: Oh yeah? Why won’t your mom be at your birthday?
Girl: She got arrested last night. (Note: I was unaware that kids could make the kinds of leading statements that goad you into engaging in a conversation you don’t really want to have. I thought this was something you develop over years and years of having people not be interested in what you have to say…apparently it’s ingrained from birth).
Me: Uh oh! That’s no good.
Girl: Yeah, she was driving without a license.
Me: Yep, that’ll happen.
Girl: Yep! (She said this like this wasn’t the first time her mom got arrested, which kind of scared me.)
Me: Ok, well I hope she makes it to your birthday.
Girl: Me too! Will you push me?

I gave her one push and then started muttering about how it was time to take Jonah home for dinner. Parks….never a dull moment!