Mr. Rogers would be proud!

Oh man is it beautiful outside! I mean beautiful! The sun is shinning! The birds are singing! (yes, even here in the city although I think it's a chorus of pigeons) Even the cars don't sound as loud and polluting as the trundle by the flung open windows of my apartment. It's just a great day to go out and see the neighbourhood.

From the tenor or maybe the pitch of my little local space, I am not the only inhabitant to welcome this weather. As I came back from my grocery shopping last night I was amazed at what I saw! There were at least two hundred children playing on the playground beside my building. There were hundreds of them!!! With just about as much noise as you can guess...These kids were going nuts, running around, laughing, some crying and all enjoying their freedom outside. I've never seen the playground this full, never!

What was interesting in all of this was that I pinpointed one of my new friends from my conversation circle on monday mornings and I walked over to say hello. She was there with her children who had been enjoying the playground, that was until they encountered some difficulties with one of the other children there. They had decided to cut their time short and were on their way home.

Although this is not something that I took from this particular experience, I have run into other parents who had made comments about 'how to' and 'how not to' play on the playground. These weren't your 'No running!' or 'No screaming' requests but more thoughts about how one should play on the playground - these included proper behaviour on the playground (understandably no hitting, pushing or stealing things fits into this section), the idea of supervising one's children (I have been told that certain groups of individuals do not get enough supervision), when children should be playing on the playground (never after dark!), and other such things.

I think there is much one can learn about the social norms about raising children and acceptable behaviours in public space just by looking at the local speeltuin (playground)! There is so much other stuff to think about with this topic but I think I'll leave it there. It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood, won't you be my neighbour?