In The Sandbox
As a general rule, I try not to judge other parents. But sometimes . . . well, sometimes things are so in your face that they are hard to overlook.
Today we took advantage of the warm, albeit dreary, weather and headed out to our favorite playground. All were happy in my family, as were the other children who were playing there, when a final group arrived. As they walked up, the father immediately said to his three-year-old-ish son, “You can’t play in the sand box or else we’re going home.” Well, you can imagine what ensued.
This playground has a particularly fun sandbox, the kind that has two diggers in it that can be manipulated with levers to pick up and dump piles of sand. All of the other kids there, including my own, were either presently in the sandbox or had already hit it. And so this little boy started to cry, of course. And his parents acted like he shouldn’t be crying and were frustrated by this, threatening again to go home. Which just made the boy more upset and caused him to start running away and screaming, saying at one point, “That’s not fair!” as he pointed to all the other children who were playing in the sand. And I thought to myself that indeed, it wasn’t fair.
My son HAS to bathe every night. He is active and comes in smelling like wet dog…blech. I hate for him to be dirty but he is a boy after all!
Beth, I really appreciate what you had to say here. I often make mistakes with my own, i.e. taking them all to Walmart today, but I know that I have to roll with the punches.I left their worn out, a tad embarrassed, but not at all upset with them for a,b or c (it was pretty bad). They are just kids. If people don’t like it, they can look the other way.
Jen
awwww :o( this post made me sad. I want to go give that little boy a hug.
How sad
Of course kids get dirty……they are kids……deal with it.