Scenes from the Playground

Last week. Two moms with a total of five kids in tow. As they passed by, I mentioned that the youngest boy in their group was wearing the same shirt as Sammy. Mom gave some sort of gravely response that was, by and large, unintelligible. The kids got right down to business playing, swinging, etc. The moms, however, situated themselves in the far corner, where they could barely even see their kids. They then proceeded to sit and chain smoke for the remainder of our visit.

Yesterday. There were only about five other adults and less than ten kids. Pretty quiet for this particular playground. While desperately grasping my index finger, Sam toddled over to the purple tube area, his most beloved playground fixture. Unfortunately, there were two moms (does no one come to the playground alone?) sitting at the entrance to the purple tube. One held a little girl, about eight or nine months, and the other was using her body to keep her toddler son inside the purple tube. Sam actually tried to climb over them, but they asked me if we could play somewhere else because they didn't want their kids to get dirty. I can only imagine what their houses look like if they bring the kids to the playground to keep them away from dirt.

Look! A friend who wants to play. What a nice change of pace, huh? This is an older shot, from my trip to Philly in September/October 2006. I'm including it as part of the Picture This Snap Happy week. Won't you play along with us?