teen parents

The Park Everyone needs to take a break from their lifestyle and just sit down and take it all in sometimes. When I asked myself where the best place to do that is, I don’t have to think for more than a second. My favorite spot to sit and observe what’s going on is the park. The air always smells so fresh and clean, the grass was beginning to turn slightly brown. The ground was covered with a blanket of colorful leaves that had fallen from the trees like snow, leaving branches almost bare. The sound of children’s laughter coming from the park, so many things for the children to choose from to play on, such as the monkey bars, slides, a rock climbing wall, swings, basket ball court and so much more. I wasn’t expecting to find so many interesting things that I’ve never really paid attention to, just by watching people. My fiancé and I sat at one of many picnic tables around noon and watched our children play, while I observed everything happening around me. Children were all over the place and wearing coats that had their favorite characters on them. The children that looked to be around three or four had more super heroes on their coats, whereas the one or two year olds had either blue or pink on to symbolize that they are a boy or a girl.
Most of the boys at the park were non verbal by playing tag with one another, not saying anything to each other just running after one another, even when they were caught by the tagger they would freeze in their place to symbolize that they were froze, then wait for another player to come unfreeze them. The boys looked to be around five or six. The girls at the park tended to be more verbal, with the other girls but not so much with the boys their age, they were around four. One of the little girls about the age of five, put her hands on her hips, pointed her finger and moved her head from side to side while she said “hey little boy you can’t play with us you’re not a girl so you can’t play with us.” Then the two year old little boy started to cry. I did think it was unusual that the little girl’s parents didn’t do anything about her saying that, to the little boy. I think all children should play together to learn social skills whether they be male or female.
The girls tended to stick together and take turns with their secondary group, were as the boys wanted to push and shove and do everything themselves with no help from their primary group or their secondary group. Although their primary group had to step in at one point because one of the little boys around the age of four decided to pull a little girls hair, because he wanted to go down the slide first. His parents thought he did a deviant behavior and gave him a spanking. Being a mom the folkway that I learned and pass down for my children, is to explain to them what they did wrong, by getting eye level with them, then giving a timeout, depending on how old, one minute for each year.
I observed so many things that I never really paid any attention to, such as parents giving their child a spanking at the park, that is not a folkway nor the norm for my family, however I’m not saying it is a deviant behavior on the primary group of the child, I’m simply referring to my family. I really enjoyed observing every child and seeing that their all so different yet so the same in their own way. Some may not get along, and some get along great. Makes me wonder where did the children that don’t play so well with others come from? What’s their passed? Is it just the age they are? Even the children that plays great with others, where do they come from, a wealthy primary group? What about the parents that don’t punish their children, when the norm would be to punish them, to teach them the difference between right and wrong, where would those children end up in life?