We ordered Frances a Spicy Barbeque Thickburger which she enjoyed very much... Okay, that was for me (and I thought it had to much BBQ sauce). We brought food for Frances.
Now, Frances has started pulling off her bib in the middle of meals. It is really irritating and we really haven't been able to figure out how to stop her from doing it.
But tonight, at Hardee's, Arial gave Frances a "you're making me so sad" face and she stopped tugging on her bib. That was the first time that a guilt trip worked. It's an important development because it means that 1) Frances is able to understand that we have feelings too and 2) that we have a powerful new parenting tool.
Arial wanted to make sure that I marked this occation with a blog entry.
Across the street from Hardee's was a park. So, after supper we walked over to it. The park was old and so was the equiptment. It was the fun equiptment made of metal that you could (potentially) hurt yourself on (but never did). The park had those little horses that you can sit on and they rock. There were big swings (the kind that you could go high enough that it was scary to look down at the peak). There was a free standing metal slide (although it was kind of short) and teeter-totters that only used the power of levers to work. (The park that we go to near our house has this weird spring powered teeter-totter that you can use by yourself. I think it's for lonely children).
But the best peice (and the reason we went over there) was the merry-go-round. It was a real metal merry-go-round. The kind that you could spin so fast that you were afraid to jump on. The kind where there was a hint of real danger when you ventured out toward the edge. It was a little wobbly but was still being greased so it spun smooth when everyone was in the center.
There was the characteristic path around it where no grass grew. Kids were obviously still playing on it. That made me feel happy to know that not everyone was growing up today in a completely sanitary environment. There are still kids risking being tossed off a merry-go-round or worse, being drug around in a circle.
The only worry is that after being raised where everything is completely safe, they might not know that the danger is real. But I guess kids wouldn't care anyway.
So, we pushed Frances on the swing and took a couple spins on the merry-go-round. She seemed to like it. Even though she kept spining her head with the turns, there was a big smile on her face.
I hope when we eventually move that we can find a place near an old park for Frances to play in.
mwz
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3 comments:
That's so sweet that you want to move near an old park. Are there any location suggestions from the massive, diverse Passive Paranoia readership? Since we're probably moving in a couple years, we need time to evaluate and rate any potential old parks before we start looking for a new house. -Arial
P.S. Any chance you could type your blog in Word, spell check it, and then post it?
The last old-school playground I knew of was in Iowa City and was removed and replaced with wood planters and trees and mulch when some little girl fell off of something and broke her pelvis. This was at my elementary school.
I really liked the image of kids being
drug around by the merry-go-round. They have some of that cool playground equipment at the park my be river in Mosinee, WI. But who wants to live in Mosinee? I will try to survey parks as I travel around and will let you know if I find anything good. Modern parks have too much climbing and not enough spinning and all the slides are too short. - Attina
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