The playground

Children can teach us or remind us how to behave better. In the past few weeks I’ve seen better behaviours in children, managing situations and coping better than some adults I know.

Playground fights and tempers and usually forgotten that afternoon or rectified by “sorrys” and genuine forgiveness.  From tears they move back to handball and sometimes back again.

Beau was acting out the other afternoon, he was moody and slightly teary. I was about to tell him to chill when I thought it might be something else.

“Who did you play with today little man?” I asked.

“No one, I didn’t have any friends today.”

He wouldn’t look at me. I felt sorry for him.

I gently pushed for more information and found that his best mate Paddy had got annoyed with him and left him alone. Beau didn’t know what to play with anyone else, since his best mate and he are inseparable.

“Well, you need to spread out time with your friends, so if something happens, you still have others around you. You know, like I have Rosanna, David and Bill, we all have different time together.”

He nodded his head.

The next day the boys played together, but I continued to prompt him to spread his time and to ensure he didn’t just play his games. He needs to learn to play what the other kids want sometimes. It’s about balance.

Us adults have our own playground, full of games, petty fights and tantrums. Some adults apologise, others continue to ignore their mates because of their own issues – perpetuating to the point where no-one remembers how it all started.

Wearing Batman suits and sharing melting chocolates from each others hands seems to work OK for the under 7’s.

For us bigger kids, sometimes you need to just swallow our pride, say sorry and buy your mate a beer. Superman costumes are optional.