In general, depending on who brings a child to the playground, there are different levels of risk the child is exposed to. I’m not saying that it’s always true but it’s pretty accurate most times.
So just for fun, let’s start with the most risky and work our way down.
The dads
The biggest culprits who expose their kids to the most risk. They usually give the child free reign and freedom of the entire playground. Many times, they stand off and either watch from a distance or fiddle with their phones while waiting. There were times when I’d see a kid rampaging around and I’d look around wondering where the parent was; it would be the dad right on the opposite side of the playground, checking out cute joggers.
The babysitters
Many children nowadays are primarily taken care of by full time babysitters, often from Indonesia or Philippines. They half-heartedly chase the kid around, while regularly calling the child’s name in a whiny, scolding tone. They already know the child won’t listen to them because of the times the parents have let the children override them. It’s not their own child so the ownership level is obviously different. The only thing that keeps them following the child around is that they’d get in trouble if there was an injury.
The grandfathers
Even though I’ve ranked grandfathers as pretty ‘risky’, it’s not that they’re not careful. They just tend to be older and find it hard to keep up with the child running around, even though many of them still think they can! At the same time, I find that men tend to have a lower intuition for danger, and that sense for what’s going on around them continues getting more numb as they grow older, not for lack of effort. There’s no tingling sensation when something is about to go wrong which moms tend to pick up almost on a superhuman level.
The moms
Moms tend to let the child enjoy within boundaries of safety. They can play on the first and maybe the second slide, come to the third and highest one, and it’s “that’s too high for you dear, let the big kids go there, you’ll fall down”. Mothers also like to treat things as a learning experience, every moment of the day. “Don’t help my child up. I want to let her learn that she’s gotta do it herself!” “See? You are unable to climb up this ladder so you should grow older first.” “Come away from that. You can play here and here, but not there.”
The grandmothers
I really pity the grandmas. They follow the child through every narrow tunnel, every bridge, every stair, sometimes even the slide, all the while holding both hands out in case she needs to cushion an inadvertent bump at every turn. You can see their concern that anything could happen anytime which could hurt their precious grandchild, and they are the only ones who can be the all-present protector. And you can also see the beads of sweat on her forehead, the slight shaking as she stoops over, where the next day is sure to come with a few aches.
The dads (again)
But who gets the award of being the safest for the child to be with? Once again the fathers…who go to the playground with both the child AND the mother. The mother will be following the other two around, making statements non-stop. “That’s too dangerous for our boo-boo. Take him there.” “Careful of his head, dear! He came so close to bumping it on the railing. Are you even watching him???” “Should we go soon? There are so many other kids and they could knock over our little one.” Inevitably, the dad becomes a bit like the grandmother, only fitter, hovering close by and trying to cushion all the imaginary falls and dangers, all the while being ‘supervised’ by the closely observing mommy. He knows there’ll be hell to pay if the child makes even a little stumble.
I don’t know whether I pity the grandmothers more or these dads…
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