Children can teach us or remind us how to behave better. In the past few weeks I鈥檝e seen better behaviours in children, managing situations and coping better than some adults I know.
Playground fights and tempers and usually forgotten that afternoon or rectified by 鈥渟orrys鈥� and genuine forgiveness.聽 From tears they move back to handball and sometimes back again.
Beau was acting out the other afternoon, he was moody and slightly teary. I was about to tell him to chill when I thought it might be something else.
鈥淲ho did you play with today little man?鈥� I asked.
鈥淣o one, I didn鈥檛 have any friends today.鈥�
He wouldn鈥檛 look at me. I felt sorry for him.
I gently pushed for more information and found that his best mate Paddy had got annoyed with him and left him alone. Beau didn鈥檛 know what to play with anyone else, since his best mate and he are inseparable.
鈥淲ell, you need to spread out time with your friends, so if something happens, you still have others around you. You know, like I have Rosanna, David and Bill, we all have different time together.鈥�
He nodded his head.
The next day the boys played together, but I continued to prompt him to spread his time and to ensure he didn鈥檛 just play his games. He needs to learn to play what the other kids want sometimes. It鈥檚 about balance.
Us adults have our own playground, full of games, petty fights and tantrums. Some adults apologise, others continue to ignore their mates because of their own issues 鈥� perpetuating to the point where no-one remembers how it all started.
Wearing Batman suits and sharing melting chocolates from each others hands seems to work OK for the under 7鈥檚.
For us bigger kids, sometimes you need to just swallow our pride, say sorry and buy your mate a beer. Superman costumes are optional.
