When Your Kids Say What You Are Thinking...

Today is absolutely gorgeous! So while my goal was to organize and clean a bit, we headed to the park. As Big Boy ran and climbed, I sat with EG and took in the sunshine; giving thanks for the cool dry air. We had the place to ourselves for the most part until about 20 mins into our playing when a noise developed down the path.

Big Boy stopped mid-climb to turn around to see who or what was coming his way. He had to crane his neck so far that he nearly toppled off the rock "mountain" he was scaling. Upon seeing what was coming our way, he turned to look at me for reassurance. "Keep climbing...hands on the rocks." Is what I said, acting as if it was no big deal, inwardly I was groaning.

What was heading our way was a pack of preschoolers followed by two women I assumed were their mothers. The kids were jumping and pushing and basically, being kids. But they were LOUD. Really, really LOUD. They came closer. and closer. and closer.

Finally, they arrived at the park and descended like locust upon the climbing walls, slides, monkey bars and swings. There were 5 or 6 of them all around 3 or 5 years of age. Every bar and stair and slide was taken over by not only their bodies, but by their voices.

It quickly became obvious where the kids learned how to turn up the volume with such gusto. Their mothers were screamers and loud talkers. They seated themselves on a bench near me and alternated between screaming at the kids and then talking really loudly to each other as they tried to chat about their week. They had to catch up on summer travel (get down!) and fall plans and who had just had a baby (do not throw that again!!) and how she was doing and what they thought of her husband (what did I say?!)and what they were going to have for dinner and why their kids didn't know how to take turns (Stop it!)and how their oldest was getting too much homework (that is it!) and how picky their youngest child was about where he'd go to the bathroom and....

Big Boy slid down the spiral slide so fast, and then just stood frozen at the bottom taking it all in.

Slowly, so as not to miss any action he inched his way back over to me.

"Mom, we go now?"

So as not to look like we were leaving because they had just taken over--I mean, play--I told Big Boy to take one more turn on something "before we need to go." Why I cared what it looked like to this group I do not know.

Big Boy opted to play with the wood chips for a moment near me and then said he was ready. "We go."

As we walked back to the car, he took my hand willingly and walked along quietly. Nearing our car he looked up at me as if to say something he'd given much thought to...."Mom, those guys loud. I don't like when people loud."***

I looked around with that parental shame we have when our kids utter a social faux pas, "Shhhh, Big Boy."

Then, realizing he had really just stated the truth, and why should he be corrected for that (plus, we were really far away AND they could never have heard us over themselves), I added, "You are right, they were very loud."


***I will remember this tonight around 5pm when both my kids are screaming and Big Boy is trying to out scream his sister--reaching new volume and notes each night. It is charming.