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Friday, March 9, 2012

Lessons in Motherhood- Why bubbles at the playground might not be a great idea

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I knew we were going to be outside for most of it. I remembered that my mom sent me a birthday package which included some bubbles for Blake. So I grabbed the bubbles on the way out and we walked up the street to the playground.

There were a few kids playing as I sat down and started blowing bubbles. Blake had a great time chasing the bubbles all over the playground. After about 30 seconds, 2 kids came over to chase the bubbles as well. A minute later 2 more kids came running over. Pretty soon I realized that my fun idea may have backfired for several reasons:

-Everyone wanted a turn blowing bubbles. I gave the first 2 kids that came over a turn. But after more started running over I said I would be handling the blowing of bubbles.

-"Can I have a turn?" was asked about 50 times. And when I said no, "But why?" was asked 50 times as well. And was ignored 49 times.

-"Hey! Blow some bubbles over here!" was shouted at me several times to which I finally said, "I can't control where they go."

-Eventually blowing bubbles for my 2 year old to play with turned into 7 children trying to pop the bubbles before they even left the wand. I don't let my own child smack at things dangerously close to my face so I certainly didn't enjoy that aspect of the bubbles.

After about 10 minutes of blowing bubbles I said I was going to put them away for a while. A few "Can I have a turn"s trailed off as the kids ran to find something else to occupy their playground time. Obviously I don't expect children to see bubbles at the playground and not play with them. In my naivete, I pictured a scene where I'd be sitting on a bench and children would be laughing and chasing the bubbles as they floated through the sky. I didn't anticipate the scene that actually unfolded.

Lesson learned: Bubbles are best used on our front steps. Blake enjoys chasing them and he doesn't go too far down the sidewalk because when the bubbles blow away he runs back to me looking for more.

2 comments:

Lindsay said...

Rule #1 for Playground Visits: Don't take ANYTHING to the playground that you don't want to share with the rest of the neighborhood. Seriously. Which is why we very, very rarely take anything with us when we go. (Not because I'm not a sharing person, but because it makes my boys crazy when everyone but them gets to play with their stuff.)

Oh, to have a yard... :)

Emily said...

Word, Lindsay. Word.