Last time I wrote about a wonderful day our family had at a local park. It was too cold for the now dry wading pool, but the rest of the park was dressed majestically in its best autumn splendor and satisfied our outdoor eyes far more than a window ever could. It was lovely. We packed a lunch and set out for a lovely afternoon. What was missing, though, was courage. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. Let’s say: “experience.” What was missing was experience. After playing for a while on the swing set and the toddler level slides and toys we moved onto the big kid area and that is where the fun truly began.
I say the fun started there, but it really started earlier. What did, in fact, start at the big kid park was something I’d never really and truly seen in our son before: fear. I went down the tube slide first to show him it was okay. It had a bend in it. As such, he couldn’t see the bottom. It looked like a trap. Dad had made it out the other end, but he couldn’t see what he’d have to do to make it out. He was afraid. Mom was at the top with him. I decided to stick my head back in from the bottom so he could see me from the top, but what I saw at the other end was a child scrambling back into his mother’s loving arms and away from the mysteries of the kink in the tube slide. I began to wonder if he’d do it… but do it he did. He made it to the bottom, saw me, smiled, and then said. “I want to slide again!” Up he went and down he came! Fun fun fun! We even moved to a bigger tube slide (with lots of turns like a pig’s tail) and he happily went down that slide over and over and over again. He defeated a fear I didn’t know he had. That was a great day as a parent.