tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post8419224715974705961..comments2023-10-03T15:42:24.443+01:00Comments on Dutchess Discloses: MetamorphosisUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-69654015007943810982008-05-05T15:16:00.000+01:002008-05-05T15:16:00.000+01:00I am not overtly keen on 'playgrounds' anyway. Th...I am not overtly keen on 'playgrounds' anyway. They always come across as contrived and fake to me, but of course kids love 'em. We had a playground put in our back garden in the old house and brought it to the forest when we moved here. It looks out of place, lol, but the kids love the swings (me too actually) and the platform bit of it is ace as a lookout.<BR/><BR/>But I don't like the kind of play that goes on in public playground. So often kids are taken to them to be 'unleashed' during some spell of 'quality time' between school and whatever extracurricular activity is next on the schedule. And whether we like it or not, a group of unsupervised kids at a playground are at the mercy of the sort of gangs of lost boys you mention invading a space at the choir.<BR/><BR/>I don't know what to say really. Where we live there is a community playground maintained by the villagers, there is no age limit to who may play on it but I tend to ask the massive bloke teenage boys to get down off the beams of part of it because I know that there is a weight limit.<BR/><BR/>If we go to parks where there are a load of massively built people who are barely able to contain themselves with regard to the littler ones, not that they are being mean, but 'clumsy' is a word that that springs to mind, we would feel intimidated enough not to put the smaller members of our family into that mix. <BR/><BR/>At the trampoliney part of a local play centre they have one trampoline for little kids and one massive one for the big b*ggers. The bigger one is always splattered with blood, purely because when a mass of muscle, blood and tissue of that size is careering through the air it makes quite a mess when impacting on another. *sigh*<BR/><BR/>I spose what I am saying is that I agree with you in theory..it's not fair to segregate the playgrounds, but my experience is that a lot of injuries occur at those places and it's just a lot less hassle to avoid that happening.<BR/><BR/>Play is about wild abandon to most kids used to being penned up anyway, and that is why so many injuries do occur in contrived play spaces, I'd say your kids are not the norm and that they will be kinder and more considerate and less 'charged'. Perhaps you could do what kids used to do to council signs in the old days: if you don't like what it says: grafitti over it till it says what you like. I can't tell you how many signs my own little pre teen gang went around altering in the public parks when I was a kid. <BR/><BR/>Luv,<BR/><BR/>EF x<BR/><BR/>efdiary.wordpress.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-41415811382717667462008-05-04T19:11:00.000+01:002008-05-04T19:11:00.000+01:00*grin* To be honest, Ann, I love those teen years....*grin* To be honest, Ann, I love those teen years. In quite a different way to how I love them when they're little, but I find it fascinating to see how everything they've been gathering and developing comes to bloom, and they all do it in their very own way. <BR/>I've always had teens in the house. Even when AL was young we had teenage foster children. Now that all my birth children are teenagers, we have registered to foster. And it would be nice to have young foster children, in an age where fantasy and play are still very important. It keeps a nice healthy balance in the family.Miekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07036904693512989501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-63044875110187089352008-05-04T13:45:00.000+01:002008-05-04T13:45:00.000+01:00My eldest is 13 this year, and aren't these teen y...My eldest is 13 this year, and aren't these teen years scary?! I'm glad I've got baby J to help me con myself into still being a "young mum" even if the mirror says otherwise...thenewstead6https://www.blogger.com/profile/16284472150501306364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-59494281377895553852008-05-02T23:21:00.000+01:002008-05-02T23:21:00.000+01:00LOL Gill, I actually considered including some of ...LOL Gill, I actually considered including some of the experiences we've had in shops, when the shop people didn't realize Owen, Myrna and a friend were with me... Shocking, the things they got told and all they were doing was walking there. Ow, and laughing. <BR/><BR/>I remember the first time I came to England and I couldn't get over the fact that (a) there were public places where children were not allowed, even in daytime!, and (b) that there were still people going to these places!! <BR/>Before we moved here, when AL and O were only four and two, we came to England to see Ken's family visit and we were asked to leave a restaurant where we were having lunch because the children were too noisy!! I was absolutely shocked.<BR/>When we have Dutch guests I always get kind of embarrassed for having to explain that, sorry, children aren't welcome everywhere.<BR/>Having said that, I'm afraid that if you'd go to Holland now you might not find the Dutch as tolerant as before. Things - and especially tolerance levels - have changed majorly.Miekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07036904693512989501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-72295681078258780022008-05-02T19:37:00.000+01:002008-05-02T19:37:00.000+01:00Wow, she looks stunning! And yes, a lot older ;-)I...Wow, she looks stunning! And yes, a lot older ;-)<BR/><BR/>I share your disgust of <I>that</I> kind of thinking re: the sign. My personal pet hate is the 'no unaccompanied children' one on shops - as if all children are automatically thieves unless with an adult. <BR/><BR/>I love this country but I'm the first to admit that its generic attitude to children sucks.<BR/><BR/>Went to Holland on holiday a lot as a child myself though and the difference was amazing!! Restaurant staff <I>spoke</I> directly to us! This was something that had never happened to us in England. And shop staff - everyone. They even seemed to like to see us playing, which was a complete novelty to me. I loved being there.Gillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09707661738889563273noreply@blogger.com