Getting Dirty

I'm an avid playground observer. I am convinced that there is much to learn about parenting from watching others - both the parents and the kids.

I realized that again yesterday watching a friend of ours with her kids. Every time they're in the park together, she's playing with her children. She doesn't simply stand on the side and watch while they do their thing. She sits with them in the sandbox and builds castles (despite the fact that all the other adults are clustered around the edge of the sandbox). When her son is climbing on the jungle gym, she is just as likely to be chasing him through the apparatus as paying attention from ground level.

As I watched, I couldn't help but look forward to the kind of relationships that this Mom will have with her kids when they're teenagers. Her kids will know that she loves being with them, and doing things with them - and that she's willing to go outside the bounds of what other parents do in order to strengthen those relationships with her kids.

My onclusion: Getting dirty is well worth it.