Oh No My Baby!
One spring day a couple years ago, my daughter and her friends were enjoying the weather and playing outside. As I was outside planting some flowers that would never grow, I let them play in the street with their strollers. Mostly they were just pushing the baby-filled strollers down the street, pretending they were moms out on a walk with their children. Back and forth and back and forth -- they're only allowed to go to the neighbor's driveway. Cute, huh?
Chittering and chattering and wearing their sunglasses. Meems wearing her red heels, of course.
Shortly, they're all screaming and laughing, and as I stand up to see what's going on, a stroller whizzes by me down the street (which is a slight incline) with a screaming 5-year-old running after it. Not thinking, and noticing the look of panic on my daughter's face, I stop the stroller. I mean, for a mom, that's an instinct that's as much a part of us as breathing.
"MO-OMMM!" Meems always adds another syllable for emphasis. "You messed up our GAME-UH!"
And then I notice another baby in a stroller coming, full-throttle, straight towards me, and another screaming 5-year-old running behind it screaming "OH NO MY BABY!!!!"
"See," Little Meems points out with her hand on her hip. "We're PUH-LAYING a game called OH NO MY BABY!"
And here comes the third screaming little girl hurtling after her speeding stroller.
Three little girls collapse in a pile of giggles. "That was funny, let's do it again."
At this point, I don't feel I need to explain any further the details of the game. I think you get it.
I admit, I had a moment of "is this appropriate?" but it quickly lost out to "oh well, they're having fun."
Maybe that was a bad call. My neighbor across the street walked by with her daughter, who, incidentally was pushing a REAL baby in a REAL stroller. And they stopped to talk to the girls. Holy crap! Before I could high-tail it up the hill to intervene (and say what, exactly??) they had already explained the game.
I only hope, as the mother of 4 children herself, somewhere in her history there's a childhood game that's equally as inappropriate.
It's now a regular in my children's made-up-game repertoire, along with wedgie-mama (you know that one) and big wheel slingshot.
More on that later.
Chittering and chattering and wearing their sunglasses. Meems wearing her red heels, of course.
Shortly, they're all screaming and laughing, and as I stand up to see what's going on, a stroller whizzes by me down the street (which is a slight incline) with a screaming 5-year-old running after it. Not thinking, and noticing the look of panic on my daughter's face, I stop the stroller. I mean, for a mom, that's an instinct that's as much a part of us as breathing.
"MO-OMMM!" Meems always adds another syllable for emphasis. "You messed up our GAME-UH!"
And then I notice another baby in a stroller coming, full-throttle, straight towards me, and another screaming 5-year-old running behind it screaming "OH NO MY BABY!!!!"
"See," Little Meems points out with her hand on her hip. "We're PUH-LAYING a game called OH NO MY BABY!"
And here comes the third screaming little girl hurtling after her speeding stroller.
Three little girls collapse in a pile of giggles. "That was funny, let's do it again."
At this point, I don't feel I need to explain any further the details of the game. I think you get it.
I admit, I had a moment of "is this appropriate?" but it quickly lost out to "oh well, they're having fun."
Maybe that was a bad call. My neighbor across the street walked by with her daughter, who, incidentally was pushing a REAL baby in a REAL stroller. And they stopped to talk to the girls. Holy crap! Before I could high-tail it up the hill to intervene (and say what, exactly??) they had already explained the game.
I only hope, as the mother of 4 children herself, somewhere in her history there's a childhood game that's equally as inappropriate.
It's now a regular in my children's made-up-game repertoire, along with wedgie-mama (you know that one) and big wheel slingshot.
More on that later.
Comments