A little Annoyed

So today there was FINALLY a break in the weather, it's been raining for a couple of days and we were more than ready to get out and enjoy the sun. After school the kids and I went up to upper Arlington to what Leah calls "The Fancy Park" known to the rest of the world as Fancy burg. It's a nice little park with fun playground equipment and we just discovered it a few weeks ago. So Alex decided that with all the trees and stuff it would be fun to play guns with some of the other little boys there. Leah went off and did her thing while Ethan followed Alex around trying to do what Alex did and "secure the fort".

Everything was going just fine and I'd started to zone out about when all of a sudden I hear a woman yell "OH MY GOD that boy has a gun"... well like everyone in the park I turned to see what she was talking about... she started pointing at Alex and said "who's child is this?"... and I mumbled "uh mine" ... she said "Do you know he has a gun?" .. I said " Yeah, he has a couple of toy guns here" and she said "You HAVE to take them away from him... it MUCH to dangerous... it'll scare all the other kids in the park... its just not safe to have weapons at the park" And I kinda sat there for a minute trying to process what was going on and wondering "is she serious?" AND THEN she stood there glaring at me until I hollered "Alex come here and bring your guns please... you didn't do anything wrong just get the guns from the other kids and come here.... he took the guns from 3 or 4 other kids who wall did the "ahhhhh man ... we were playing with them still"... I told him the guns were making some of the Mom nervous and that we need to find something else to play....

I still was trying to process everything when anther Mom walked up to me and said VERY LOUDLY...."That's a bunch of CRAP!!! I just burst out laughing!

I'm sorry but it ridiculous that our kids can't play make believe because ONE mom in the park is wound up a little TOO tightly and reads and believes all of the crap they write in Parent magazine. ALL of our kids are just moments away from dying because we microwave their mac and cheese, or in the blink of an eye a terrible disaster will strike at leave our son crippled for life or a certain kids eye make up will blind my daughter... it's stupid I'm sorry to say.

WHEN will we let our kids be kids again??? Instead of letting them explore their world and help them to appreciate things, we are teaching them to be scared and cynical. Yes bad things do happen EVERY DAY... and its heartbreaking..... but there are so many more wonderful things that happen that don't get nearly enough press or enough of our attention. We are gonna turn our kids into a bunch of wimpy nervous wrecks...... instead of adventurous happy people.

But the cherry on top of this story is about 5 minutes later The mom who had thrown the hissy fit, had her oldest boy handed her his Light saber and said "Mom I don't wanna play Kill 'em anymore" .... I picked up the guns and said "Here you go boys" and cheer rang out amongst the boys and the other mom left in a huff..... sorry lady... light sabers... guns... potato... potato.