NYC Playground

A New York City playground is one of the best places in the world. And it's pure heaven for a 7-year-old boy. I love going to the one around the corner from us. You'll see the same 5 or 6 kids/parents there on a regular basis but there's always new kids to meet whenever you go. Today W and I stopped by on our way home from dropping J off at dance. He didn't recognize anyone right away and just walked around a bit, looking for a group of kids his age. That's what W does. He looks for and then joins in any group, making new friends all the time. So today, as soon as he starts looking around he hears "Hey Boy! Wanna play freeze-tag with us?" That led to a great game of tag that went on for over an hour. I really enjoyed watching them. The kids are ALL different colors and languages and none of them could care less. The playground is this exemplary microcosm of culture and tolerance and living in the moment. W learns so many good things. Last week at a different playground W was "it" during another game of tag. This game had more older, faster kids and W was having a hard time tagging anyone. After a few minutes, I happened to see one of the kids purposely let W tag him so W would have a chance to run away. I thought that was such a nice thing to do. Today, W saw that the kid who was "it" wasn't able to catch anyone. W walked right up to him and let himself get tagged. He told me later he knows it doesn't feel good to be the slow kid and he just wanted to help him out. Pay it forward, baby!