{"id":215,"date":"2009-01-04T14:13:47","date_gmt":"2009-01-04T18:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/?p=215"},"modified":"2009-01-04T14:13:47","modified_gmt":"2009-01-04T18:13:47","slug":"see-kids-play-play-kids-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloriacrist.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/see-kids-play-play-kids-play\/","title":{"rendered":"See Kids Play. Play Kids Play."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Call me crazy-but there we were in the middle of a children’s museum the day after New Year’s day-being a family…….we were not alone.\u00a0 It was part of\u00a0our private\u00a0family fun day-much\u00a0needed-all\u00a0the decisions were left up to our 6 and a half year old.\u00a0 Walk around the city, have lunch, and then take in the new exhibit at the children’s museum.\u00a0 We were not alone. Not that I minded.\u00a0 Really.<\/p>\n

There is something I have always loved about sitting back and watching a collection of people-just being people.\u00a0 Throw kids in the mix and things really get interesting. Parents, all of us, cramming in time and squeezing out the last bit of Christmas vacation. Letting one big building and all it contains take over for a couple of hours is relieving-in a way-and yet,\u00a0with that,\u00a0there comes\u00a0a whole other set of rules.\u00a0 There are all kinds of kids-running, laughing, creating, oohing and ahhing….some dressed impeccably and with a nanny, some with a parent rightbytheirside, and others who were running amok.\u00a0 Amok, amock, amok.\u00a0 Children at play and playing well with others, sharing ( and\u00a0some of those other\u00a0things we learned in kindergarten) -some not playing so well with others and not really caring.\u00a0 Parents on patrol, on cell phones, “engaged in the activity of play”,\u00a0 on command ( “you go tell them you <\/em>were playing with it….go on…right now…right now<\/em>!”) on chase with sanitizer, on diaper duty, on mean kid alert-on watch alert and\u00a0on the arm of a girlfriend ( the other mom’s were sizing up the girlfriend-and the fact she was not dressed for the weather-sensibly- of course, never mind the fact she was most likely\u00a0wearing the cream colored\u00a0sweater (\u00a0“twosizestoosmall”,\u00a0poured over her\u00a0boobs, “twosizestoobig”,\u00a0the boyfriend with two children running around had gotten her for Christmas, and those high heeled boots, and that<\/em>purse ( a “Dolce and Gabbana” )…..none of it was sensible, really, but it was fodder for the gaggle of moms sitting in the corner, resting, which was all fodder for me- semi listening and watching-all the while inventing conversations in my head and sizing up my own parent capabilities.\u00a0 We all do it. I am\u00a0thinking some of us have the same look on our face; or at least, I think, some of the moms look like I feel. Furrowed\u00a0brows with thoughts of January, income, work, the amount of germs in the\u00a0new\u00a0water play exhibit-(don’t fool us with the whiff of Clorox in the air)…parents who are not well,\u00a0children who are not well, income, mortgages,\u00a0alone time, husband time…..it’s that same look we all have. note: I am not counting\u00a0the look on the nanny’s face and I am not counting the look on the face of the mom who cared more about going outside every five minutes, for what I don’t know, but kept asking people to “keep an eye on my kids I’ll be\u00a0right back”.\u00a0 It was the look of too many thoughts.\u00a0 The look of\u00a0how we were\u00a0going to make it all work.\u00a0 All work and no play.\u00a0 That is what is was. Exactly.\u00a0\u00a0Note:\u00a0 There were plenty of men at the museum-not one was comparing and sizing up-though plenty were on their cell phones and clearly, readytogoooooooooooo.<\/p>\n

It is a joyful thing to watch kids play.\u00a0 They just play.\u00a0 Giddy in the moment of play-from one room to the next-and then\u00a0on to the next moment.\u00a0 Exclamations\u00a0from mini achievements and discoveries.\u00a0 To see your child fully content and happy is to know your own happiness.\u00a0 I suppose it is the same thing-forever, and why, even now, it is the one thing my mom repeats more and more as her big\u00a0wish for her four children.\u00a0 She just wants us to be happy.\u00a0 Really happy.\u00a0 And yet, she knows it takes more now than a two hour trip to the museum to make that happen. Even now, with her days of the week all askew-and moments of time frozen-she still strives for that.\u00a0 See kids play. Play kids play.<\/p>\n

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