Straight Talk
Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I forgot to post pics from our little outing to the park the other day. It was unseasonably warm, so we hung out for a long time at a park that's about 35 minutes from our house while I waited for a resale shop to look at some of Scout's old clothes. I'll just post one of my favorites and you can look at the rest HERE if you wanna.

Scout loves to swing so much! I feel bad that we don't have a swing in our yard for her. Maybe that's something mommy and daddy can get for her birthday in the Spring. When we were at the park, I would guide her over to the big fun jungle gym and within 5 minutes, she would be running full force over to the swings again. I've gotta get her saying "swing" on video. She moves her arms back and forth like she's swinging and shouts "Weeeen!"

A weird observation from the swings: There was a little boy of maybe 3 years of age who wanted to swing on the same swing Scout was on. He whined, "But daddy, I want THAT one!!", to which his father replied, "Oh you don't want that one! It doesn't swing as high. That swing is not nearly as good as this one. This swing over here is for big boys, not babies" (the swing he was trying to sell his son on was the same exact type of swing Scout was on, btw)

I wondered to myself why the dad didn't just say something like, "That little girl is taking her turn in that swing right now, but maybe when she's done you can ride on it. While we're waiting, do you want to swing on this swing over here?" It seemed like a good opportunity to teach about taking turns. I'm not sure why he had to come up with some elaborate lie about the swing not swinging as high as the cool big boy swing or whatever. I mean, I know how it is to want to avoid meltdowns. I guess I can't fault the guy for that. But I just want this encounter to stick in my head to remind me that simple honesty really is the best policy when it comes to teaching kids. I can't help but think that the little boy saw right through the line of garbage his daddy was trying to feed him just to keep him happy. Kids are smart and know when we're trying to pull a fast one on them!

Labels: griping about people, outings, pics of scout, random thoughts, scout talking