This evening Leif rode his bike all the way to the middle park. With us all in tow of course. When I was a kid it was probably fine for me at that age to venture that far out.
But I guess I am just one of those overprotective mom of a less than confident little boy.
There was little whining along the way, I suspect mostly because he had a target in mind.
The coveted middle park.
The park where we quite often run into other children his age, and most often from his own school.
This evening was no different. The one little boy who lives on the park, who is not my favorite child, but I am learning to tolerate as I see that he may have less confidence than my son and his actions and the things he says that make me cringe are most likely stemming from trying to appear cool to my son.
Two other boys showed up who are also the same age as Leif and know him from school. Two boys that I far prefer and at least one of them I know his parents through work pretty well and am confident that they share similar parenting values. The boys were instant chums and split up for a quick game of soccer where the boys argued over who got to be captains and who got to be on my son's team. In talking with the other parents, they admitted their kids were not much for soccer, or for that matter any sports. Which is fine. AB and I enjoy sports and Leif has easily glommed onto this.
After soccer the boys went to the playground equipment and played and chased each other and enjoyed each other's company.
There was one other person in the park this evening.
One very lonely little girl.
Skadi stood around, refusing to join the soccer game (which didn't hurt my feelings any - those big boys can be a bit rough). She wouldn't go near the boys.
Instead she came and stood by me and said, "those boys are mean to me".
What she really meant though was, "those boys have stolen my playmate from me".
On a normal day a trip to the park is usually a solo venture for the kids where they play together and run around together.
My baby got her first taste this evening of not being included with the boys.
This maybe a harsh realization as she moves up to preschool this month and suddenly sees that her brother does indeed have a life outside of playing with /tormenting her.
Skadi moped around the park a bit, whining about the mean boys. AB finally went over and took over Leif's place being "the grumpy old troll who lives under the bridge" and coming up with wacky riddles for her to cross the bridge. AB didn't once ask her a math problem - it was a nice evening for Skadi in that respect. (Leif made up for it later though when he quizzed us the entire way home... what's 1600 times 1600 mom? Well then what is 2,560,000 times 7? We may be introducing the concept of a calculator sooner than normal.)
It's one of the tough lessons growing up. Realizing that siblings have their own friends.
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