It's a Jungle Out There

Last weekend myself and a friend took our children out to a park in one of the nearby villages. We headed for the play area and let the children run off to the slide whilst we sat on an adjacent bench (IN the play area). After 20 minutes I just could not bear it any longer. WHERE WERE ALL THE PARENTS. OUT of the play area it seemed. For some the childrens play area is a place where you simply leave the darlings whilst you have a smoke and a coffee elsewhere. Preferably at a distance so the shouting and screaming does not interfere with conversation. I am all for parents having rights to and getting their chance to relax but I think it is super mean to achieve that by dumping all responsibility for your offspring onto unwitting strangers. Mediating between young children is difficult anyway but even more so when you don't know who they are.

What happened to learning about sharing and the use of words and phrases like "a moi", "a toi", "chacun son tour", "partage". It became quicly obvious that there is no univerally shared sharing system. More like who can grab the quickest. Is there no playground etiquette?

One baby, about 10 months old, was sitting at the end of the slide with pebbles in his hand. My friend alerted the father who was not worried in the slightest and told us to carry on. Carry on as in saying "ok kids keep coming down the slide, never mind the baby at the end he will provide a soft landing"!

One last thing, the park in the beautiful village of Anduze is well worth a visit. Not only is there the childrens play area but lawns to picnic on, pigeons to chase/feed - depending on your age! There are ducks and swans who are partial to a baguette and a goldfish and koi-carp pond too. May I just say that if you come, we could do with some help in the childrens play area! IT IS A JUNGLE OUT THERE.