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Time is a thief. By the lovely Grace Farris.
P.S. Summer pleasures and salad tragedies.
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Waahhh! I feel this so much with my 11 year old. Playgrounds used to be the most
exciting thing ever and we could spend hours there. Now he doesn’t even go on the equipment a lot of the time and wants to leave because he is bored. I wish I had realized when I was trying to get my screaming toddler to leave the playground that it is all so fleeting.
K I’m crying. Almost 2 year old and I already miss last week! 😭
K. I too am almost crying. They are 21 and 26 and I already miss the last two decades!
We moved across the country when my daughter was 6, and now she is 15…Not sure how that happened, since I haven’t gotten any older! ;-)
One of your more poetic comics, Grace! I love it
Not connect to today’s comic but I have to share a Grace Farris related story. Yesterday my 11 year old son engaged us in a taste test of lots of snacks Pringles, BLUE Takis, gummies and other candy. It was so fun and I was having a blast goofing off with the boys. Later at dinner 11 year old was sitting wonky in his chair and I told him to put his feet down. He looked at me and said totally deadpan, “But, I thought you were WEEKEND MOM! Or at least Summer Mom.” I was so tickled!
Word. As a mom of a 10-year-old, I feel this!
What about how the size of the playground seems to literally change over time. It looks so big and scary when you have a little barely walking toddler and in a blink of an eye, it shrinks in front of you as they grow. Or so it just me?!
Oh my gosh, this hit me! My 16 month old just learned how to go down the slide by herself. She’s basically one step away from getting her drivers license and I’m dying.
My observation is that 10 year olds find it very cool to climb back up the slide and/or just hang out on it forever. Is it very lame to tell a 10 year old to get off the slide so that my two year old can come down?
not at all! I think most 10-year-olds would be happy to move for your kids to play. at playgrounds, kids are generally really sweet and accommodating, I find. I know that my kids wouldn’t mind moving.
my mom once told me a sweet story from when my sister and i were toddlers. she was playing with us in a park, and a group of teenage boys nearby were talking and swearing like CRAZY. so she turned to them and said, “I’m so sorry, I have my two young children here, would you mind not swearing?” and one might assume that the boys would have been eye-roll-y or annoyed, but instead they were like, “oh my gosh, we are so sorry! we will definitely stop. we are so sorry. your kids are so cute,” etc. how sweet is that?
This just happened to me yesterday! I was at a public storytime with my two year old and as we were listening to the story, a group of loud teenage boys were chasing and jumping on each other through the nearby courtyard, being kind of obnoxious and the woman leading the storytime said, “oh hi there, you can join us if you’d like! You’re never too old for picture books! We’re talking about mermaids.” I was so surprised when they responded, “Aw yeah! Mermaids, WOOO, we love mermaids!” And they all sat in the back of our group and listened to the rest of the book and applauded when it was over.
my four and six year olds also like to hang out on the slides and just chill there! but they are always happy to move out of the way if another kid wants to go up or down. no shade on the ten year olds – they need places to play outdoors too!
Not lame at all! Though be forewarned that climbing up the slide starts waaaaay before 10 so your little one will probably be doing it soon. What is the deal with kids and climbing up slides? So funny to me how universal it is. Reminds me of how we were obsessed with going on roofs in college (and I live in a college town, can confirm this is very much still a thing). The allure of doing something kinda naughty but fairly safe? I digress. :)
What I love the most about this side-chat, is that actually teen boys are awesome. Let’s all try extra hard not to think that their energy and loudness is a threat and instead smile at them and invite them in to community. From the looks of things, it seems like they tend to accept these invitations.
Absolutely not lame! I’m a middle school teacher who occasionally takes my students to the playground, and I also have a five year old. Seventh graders look big to us when we have little kids, but they’re kids inside too – it’s so much fun to see them running around like kindergarteners! Just like kids everywhere, they’re sometimes pretty oblivious and may not notice a smaller child trying to go down a slide. If you gently ask them to let your kiddo have a turn though, they’ll absolutely move. I highly recommend using an “all adults together” voice because it makes them feel important. Oddly, twelve year olds are often nostalgic about their own early childhood and will usually be eager to help or at least watch out for little children.
People aren’t always welcoming of older children on playgrounds. I totally understand why – they look so big when you have a two year old! Just remember that they are as oblivious in many ways as a two year old is, know that it isn’t intentional on their end, and ask them for what you need in a friendly, “all adults together” voice. They’ll listen and everyone gets to enjoy the playground!
I appreciate this sub-discussion, but want to point out that ‘lame’ as a way of saying ‘not cool’ is ableist language. It flies under many people’s radar, but if we think about the literal meaning — a mobility impairment — it’s clear that it’s not okay to use as it’s being used here. Everyone’s good intentions are obvious here, just thought I’d take the opportunity of a teachable moment
“People aren’t always welcoming of older children on playgrounds. I totally understand why – they look so big when you have a two year old! Just remember that they are as oblivious in many ways as a two year old is” = oh my gosh, I couldn’t agree more! when my 8-year-old son is running around with a friend at the playground (in Brooklyn, most of us don’t have real backyards — this is their only place to run around, and they are so energetic and playful and sweet, like puppies), some of the moms of younger kids sometimes come in SO HOT when they are nervous about something. I totally get feeling nervous about older kids running quickly or pushing each other high on the tire swing or whatever, but they come in very shouty, and I always think, if they know how sweet and gentle and vulnerable and funny and goofy and kind these eight-year-old boys really are, I think they would have a different approach. and these kids are so happy to slow down or go to a different area or whatever when asked! I wish everyone could spend one day with everyone else’s kids, it would really open people’s eyes, I think! xoxo
Helen, this is a great point! “Lame” isn’t a word that I regularly use, but it also didn’t register with me. I appreciate your point, and I’ll avoid using it in the future!
I remember being the mom of a toddler and being so nervous about bigger kids on the playground bumping into my kids or whatever. I do think it’s important to remember that many playgrounds have age suggestions on them, and if you are on a playground for bigger kids that 10 year old is well within the 5-12 year old suggestion, while the 2 year old is not. Obviously it is fine for toddlers to be on the structure too, but unless the older kids are being aggressive, they have every right to play too! But yes, a polite request to get out of the way is always fine!
We’ve had opposite experiences of teenagers in our local playground. A group of them came in and they were swearing loudly and taking over the swings. Most of the children in it were between 3 and 7 years old. When the fathers asked them to stop swearing in front of the small children their response was “you’re not my parent, you can’t tell me what to do”. Could be we have particularly obnoxious teenagers in the area. They did move on eventually
Yup.
Oh, my heart. Both my husband and I are in bed while our 5 year old daughter has a play date. I leaned over to show him this and welled up!
Ha! Best one ever! . This is so true.
My daughter is turning ten in a couple of weeks and the jump from American Girl to American Eagle is quick and brutal. Feeling this cartoon deeply! Thanks, Grace!
American Girl to American Eagle-so well put.
❤️❤️
Oh man, I feel this. Yesterday I put my toddler on the slide while also watching my now very tall almost 8 year old run around. Of course he’s wonderful and fun now too, but I remember doing the same with him and wishing I could go back in time and carry him again as a toddler. 😭 My co-worker with older kids once told me she wished she could freeze her child at each age and now I understand why.
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This is so sweet and made me smile. To this day (I am 41), my mother says ‘I should have never but you on that swing!’ She swears I grew up the day I went on a swing as a toddler for the first time. She uses that expression anytime I do something she considers ‘grown up’ (independent or daring).
Erin, your mom is so sweet.
♡
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