Myself, another mom and nanny of classmates of Tara were more than happy to let the kids run wild after school the other day. The weather was glorious and I didn’t have to be anywhere. Our school is blessed with not only a playground, but green playing fields and a small copse of trees and so we adults watched from a fair distance as our gaggle of kinders gambled from park to field to forest and back again. We kept a distance because we could see them and they were safe and happy and doing what kids are supposed to do.
At one point the nanny went ahead of us to see what was going on in the trees as the rest of us ambled up behind. We could SEE the conversation between her and a senior citizen out walking her dog but we couldn’t hear it. When we did arrive the nanny was very upset. Apparently the woman had told her that SHE didn’t think it was safe to let the kids in the woods due to the danger (?????) and certain authorities wouldn’t think it good parenting either.
For us mom’s this would be just a case of eye rolling at an interfering old biddy, but for the nanny PAID to look after these kids, she was really upset that her professionalism was being called into question with veiled threats.
I am still wondering what dangers would lie in the woods? (twenty trees surrounded by houses and people walking their dogs) Bandits? Robin Hood? Wolves? I mean sure there is garbage there from the school and sometimes beer cans from teens that no doubt lurk there at night with the odd coyote but come on?? At 3:30 on a sunny afternoon, is it not the perfect place for children to actually PLAY?
We visited Terra Nova park on the long weekend. Frankly we found it a bit ‘meh.’ The location is stunning for sure. But otherwise it is a sparse playground that while kids SHOULD have a grand time running wild are all hovered over by masses of helicopter parents, making any ideas for ‘adventure’ moot. I commented that this would be a great park if there were not adults allowed.
The village indeed has gone and has been replaced by a paranoid police state. There isn’t a week that goes by where so-called free range parents are being charged with neglect and reported on by curtain twitching neighbourhood watch. Our neighbourhood was designed for families. It was a planned community with a mix of housing types to suit all incomes. Sadly, that dream is being eroded by the insane housing prices and total lack of care for families and lower income people in this city. The school population dwindles every year and my kids spend more time dodging retirees and their dogs instead of other kids. Even our community centre now caters more to the senior population than it does families.
Now seniors need affordable housing too. But it is a shame to see the community change. Soon our kids won’t have anyone to play with. There are so few kids who aren’t hustled to after school care due to parents working schedules anymore. Nobody can afford to stay home with kids, not without monumental sacrifices.
It is a shame to see the community change so much that a person has the temerity to lecture another adult about the danger of kids having fun.
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