Doesn't Play Well with Others

Like I said, I feel it’s important to take Abbie to a playground where she can interact with other children, lest she grow into a weird unsociable adult who’s incapable of leaving the house at age 18. She’s still a little young to play with other children, though. Most of her interactions on the playground consist of operating as a speed bump while the other children bounce around the playground like Tiggers on meth with speed and agility that Abbie can currently only dream of. I have to give those little kids a lot of credit; for people with such limited walking experience, they do an outstanding job of avoiding Abbie while they scamper through the play area with the perpetual motion of atomic particles. I can only remember one occasion when a child bumped into her and knocked her onto the ground. A boy of about 3 jumped off one of the playground’s scaleable padded objects and landed close enough to bump her. He didn’t bump her hard, his forward momentum carried him into contact with her, but since she’s about as steady on her feet as Colin Farrell at 4am, down she started. This boy, realizing the horribleness of his actions, grabbed Abbie in an attempt, I hope, to steady her, but since he was none too sure-footed either, they both fell to the ground with him on top. The boy looked mortified, certain someone would scold him for that one. I walked over stood up Abbie before he could “help” her any more, and reassured him everyone was just fine. His guardian never even reacted.

Another boy was not so lucky. This one, aged about 2, ran up and pushed Abbie, not hard, but hard enough to knock her to the floor. I didn’t see any nastiness in his actions; I think that was just how he played. I was a little perturbed, Abbie looked unfazed, but his mommy rushed in with furious anger to scold him on the sidelines. A couple of minutes later, the same boy wandered over to Abbie to try playing again. After he realized that she was fairly non-interactive, he started walking away, stepping right on Abbie’s leg. He appeared more oblivious than malicious, and again she looked unfazed, but again his mommy rushed in for a stern scolding. The woman explained to me that she’s a stay-at-homer, so her son doesn’t really know how to interact with other children. I told her I’m in the same boat, and not to worry too much since he’s still young to realize what he should and shouldn’t do. Most children don’t grasp right and wrong until about age 3, and many politicians don’t grasp the concept until late middle age, if ever. The boy learned his lesson, though; he stayed far away from Abbie the rest of the time.

Then there’s the 2ish girl that tried sharing her books with Abbie. This girl had two books she wanted to read, and handed one to Abbie when she wandered near. That was a very nice thing to do, and some day I hope Abbie learns the same value of sharing. Right now, though, Abbie shares almost as well as Corey Patterson draws walks, and demanded to see the book the other girl had, attempting to turn pages and rotate it to her perspective. I snatched her up mumbling important lessons about sharing, and dropped her off 15 feet from the sharer. Abbie bolted back to the girl attempting to commandeer an obviously fascinating book. I grabbed her again, and decided it was time to leave. I made sure to apologize to the girl before leaving, because if I can’t teach my child important lessons about playing with others, hopefully I can teach someone.