They have no preconceived notions. They just want to have fun and when there is an opportunity to meet new people, they jump on it.
I ran up to our local park this morning for the first time. The gals are always happy to find a new playground and this was no different. After we had played for about 10 minutes, a group of about 10 kids from a local church camp came cavorting through the park. I knew the gals would be excited, because they were a bit older. Maybe in the Kindergarten to 1st grade range. The gals love big kids. They spend most their days with a 9 year old, so they love engaging in that style of play.
The entire group hit it off with the gals. They started including them in their play even though they were far bigger and more advanced. They called them both “baby wonder women.”
Baby Wonder Women! How awesome is that?
As the kids enjoyed themselves I started chatting with their group leader. I used to work in camps, so this is something I enjoy talking about and their leader was a delight. She told me that the kids in this group are from homeless shelters and halfway homes. The camp was established to help their parents with a daycare option while they were at work.
Wow. I would have never guessed it, and all I could think about was THIS is why we moved back intown. My kids are meeting children from all walks of life. They are seeing that it doesn’t matter about your background, that all types of kids are good kids. Our burbs experience was nothing like this. It was so very…privledged.
This group was having a blast, they included my much smaller children in their play without a bat of an eye. They were caring, sweet, and even showed Madeline how to slide down the fireman’s pole.
They thanked me when I gave them a leg up for the monkey bars & squealed with delight when I congratulated them on their climbing accomplishments. Not only were these kids awesome, but it made me really miss my camp director days.
There was a tiny girl in the group that immediately took to Madeline. They held hands and giggled the entire time. She showed me she could do cartwheels & even convinced me to do one as well (I was actually really impressed with myself after I completed one without falling on my face).
As the group packed up to go back in for lunch, they squeezed the gals and said goodbye.
I hope we run into them at the park again.
