The Playground

Whenever my husband and I utter the words "the playground", my almost 3 year old son perks up to the equivalent of a triple latte. Lately we've been using the verbage, "Should we take him to the PG today?", and he instantly started to shout, "I want to go to the PG!". When I asked him what "PG" stood for, he matter-of-factly said, "the playground". So much for abbreviations...

When we took him to the PG on a quite Sunday, I took time to observe how he approached it. Jacob gingerly walked onto one of the play areas, then stood back and watched the other kids for awhile. It didn't look like he was scared to interact with the other kids who were deeply entrenched in make-believe adventures while climbing the ladders and traversing the slides. What I see in my son is a very analytical side, one who likes to watch everything, then inspect it some more in order to figure out how it works for himself (he takes after his Papa). Jacob would then start playing in an area, then stop and watch the kids again. He definitely didn't rush the process of the playground.

Every time we've taken him to a playground, I see similar interactions each time. There usually is an older kid who is leading several other kids on an adventure, a kid not playing well with their sibling, a bully who gets courage when he/she thinks the adults are looking the other direction, and the social kid who likes to make new friends with everyone. I see my son as the observer who studies the interaction before entering the fray.

I think most of us go to a playground (of sorts) everyday. Whether it's at work, the grocery store or at the gym, we as adults deal with other personality types that are often challenging (to say the least). Some people take charge even when their leadership is not welcomed or necessary. Some people will follow the actions of others just to fit in with the group. We have the adult bullies who usually run the intimidation angle, and the socialites who can get along with everyone.

How successful would we all be in life if we occasionally take 'the observer' to heart? My son may be onto something by first studying his peers and not letting himself fall into the surrounding drama without question. Maybe we should take things slower and take time to observe, in order to better understand what we are getting ourselves into. It's everyone's choice as to how they play along with others, and it's good to be versitile with all the situations we get ourselves into. That way we don't end up playing on the lame slide in our PG :)