WHY DO MOMS THINK THAT RUNNING ON PLAYGROUNDS IS FORBIDDEN?

Do you know the words overprotection, isolation, and oversensitivity?

In this post, we will read a little about it. As a mother, I have a strange feeling lately that the number of parents who have their own ideal world with their child has increased. They try to spread the rules of this world to all the playgrounds around them.
From a distance, you can see their overprotection and disgust for other children playing. What’s more, their toddler doesn’t let himself be isolated and most often escapes into crowds of other happy toddlers, but the parent does not see satisfaction in this, only disgust. Quickly takes the child to a safe and secluded place to play.

My adventures in playgrounds.

I understand the concern and care that parents have for their children. I also have children myself, 5 and 8 years old, and I don’t take my eyes off them. Or even when I’m sitting with friends, I’ll walk around a few times to calm myself down and make sure that the children are okay.

It is May, it is getting warmer, so more parents are showing up at playgrounds, and probably parents who have been keeping their children locked up at home.

Why do I think so?

The first situation

Mom forbids other children from using the slide. It looks like this: she stands by the stairs to the entrance to the slide, and behind her in the queue, other children, including mine, are waiting for her little boy (3 years, I guess) to go down and land in the hands of dad on the other side. Then she releases the slide, a few children go down, but as soon as her child wants to go down again, the same Mom blocks the other children and lets her first one through, and so the fun goes on forever. For her, it’s fun; for other children and parents, it’s an irritating situation.
From one of Patrick’s requests:

Madam, can I come down?

The child’s mother replies:

This is a slide for small children.

Patrick, of course, comes to complain, but I explain to him that the lady has a small son under her care and she is afraid that something bad will happen to him.

Patrick understands and goes to the trampoline.

This situation was resolved very positively.

I don’t understand why, leaving their own garden, their own home, parents try to establish the same rules on playgrounds. What kind of text is this?

“This slide is only for small children.”

Maybe in their own backyards, yes, but here on these neighborhood playgrounds, there are children from 0-14 years of age. My Patrick played football with them more than once. He got hit in the stomach or head with the ball, but that didn’t scare him away, and he kept making friends. As soon as he appears on the pitch with a ball, everyone plays with him.

https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/how-to-survive-the-day-with-two-small-children/

Should we keep a child under constant parental care?

The second situation:

Playgrounds are large, so my children and their friends will find another source of fun, swings, trampolines, or climbing walls. The little boy quickly got bored with the slide and wanted to play on the trampolines.

And the reaction of the oversensitive mother was obvious:

“Here you don’t run from trampoline to trampoline, you just jump nicely.“

This time, the words of this lady were addressed to children other than mine. We have three small trampolines, and the children run around and jump from one to the other, etc., they simply invent games that bring them the most joy.

However, the mother of a three-year-old was adamant and addressed the following sentence to several girls: Who raises such monkeys?

Really??? Who on the playground would dare to tell other children that they are behaving like monkeys, and what kind of example does such a mother set for her child? To be honest, I feel sorry for this child.

I come across such stories from the playground more and more often. Plenty of time outside, I heard from other Moms: You are not allowed to run here.

I see that there are notes stuck in front of the entrance to the playground that dogs, bikes, and scooters are not allowed, but I do not see this message anywhere on the playground: Children are not allowed to run!

I wrote earlier in posts that my Patrick climbed everywhere, ran everywhere from a young age. He played football with other children from the playground, and built towers and sandcastles with other children from a young age. And we, the parents, rested on the bench. He was everywhere, and I couldn’t imagine running after him all over the playground. Yes, there were situations when someone poured sand on his head, but it ended with the mother apologizing, and the children continued playing. https://littlepuzzlesandme.com/what-does-my-childrens-freedom-to-play-look-like/

From my playground memories, I have never, ever heard a mother say that someone else’s children were acting like monkeys. In my numerous visits to parks, my children have never been told they weren’t allowed to run, nor were they forbidden from using the slides.

Luckily, my kids are big now, and in most cases, we manage to avoid such conflict situations on the playground. They simply understand that for a given moment, they have to go play somewhere else.

On the one hand, I see all these children jumping, running, screaming, and inventing new games. And on the other hand, I look at this isolated mother. Now she is crouching by the pipe through which the children can pass, and I see that no child even comes close to her. Her little one tries to escape several times to the other children, but the mother quickly takes him away. And it seems to me that this type of isolation is not a completely good solution for this child.

But if Mom does not see it, do we have the right to change something about it?

And should our children be called monkeys because they run and scream with joy?

I leave you some time to think it over and share your comments.