Parenting in the Park too?

In the past few weeks, I have discovered this amazing huge park in my area that my hubby and I now take my daughter to. In addition to having an awesome play area for kids, it has a good jogging track too – double whammy!

The way it works is I watch over her as hubster does his rounds and then we swap duties. So, while it’s my turn, until recently, I would typically join her in the play area. Now I sit back on the grass and watch her pottering around from one activity to the next. I would keep watching as she goes about on her own, mostly. I didn’t quite spot the trend till I observed the park as a whole. And here’s what I have witnessed, interestingly.

More caretakers than kids

One look around the play area and a quick calculation later I realised that were apprx. 18 caretakers for 11 kids playing in the area. While there were about three couples on the playground, others were all nannies accompanying the moms, and all ended up on the ground. Thus for every child (be it two or four years old) coming down there was at least one person waiting to ensure they don’t slip down the slide. Erm!

Holding the queue

This is definitely the most annoying thing I see there – nannies who hold the swing or see-saw for their Lords and Ladies to ascend as soon as the little feet they arrive on the scene. So, now we want to make things so easy for our kids that they don’t have to stand in line for a swing. Maybe a college admission line would have been different now, hopefully?

Well-directed playtime

‘Don’t play with that boy’, ‘play here – I can see you from here’, ‘Don’t go there, it’s crowded’ – these are only some of the directions that get thrown at the excited kids as they run from one end to the other – elders in tow. Shouldn’t playtime be about letting them explore the space themselves rather than expecting them to stick to the approved set of activities?

Prevention is better than cure

The most common statement I have heard ‘don’t go there, you’ll get hurt’. Isn’t playtime about letting them explore by themselves and understanding their own physical limits as well as pushing it?

So, one of the reasons I have let K play by herself is to figure out how to make friends in the park and generally get along. As the only child at home, her interaction is mostly with adults unless her cousins come home. However, this doesn’t seem to be working much. Most kids are so occupied with their own parents and nannies that uttering a word to anybody else would be a challenge!

Here’s hoping that all these concerned caregivers will experience the joy of resting your backside on the soft grass and smelling the flowers while the little ones tire themselves out. Now, that would be a win-win, no?