Making Friends

This hasn't been the greatest of weekends for me. I have been felled by a nasty combination of my moon cycle, a really intense cold, and a migraine. Gotta love a triple whammy like that! Mostly what I hate is that I know how my kids look forward to family time and family time is not typically playing while Ooma takes a nap. Usually it is something considerabley more fun. Now don't get me wrong, we did some fun things. We baked a cherry pie. We did two different art projects. We went to our local park twice. So it was probably okay for them. But for me, who had hopes of something of a grander variety (walking to a newly renovated park about 1.5 miles away and a trip to a zoo the second day. . . well it was a bit of a let down. Or a worry on my part that I was letting them down. Or some combination thereof.

However, there was a very cool thing that happened at the park tonight. There is a local police officer--I'll call him Officer Plod because my son KC watches a show with a cartoon policeman by that name. Officer Plod has a lovely wife and a lovely son who is just about my Elisabeth's age. Last week when the Plod family came to the park their son wanted to play with my kids. But every time he did, Daddy intervened and prevented it. I tried to reassure Officer Plod that his son was doing fine and was welcome to join us. I was told that his son should not bother others. That is not a direct quote but it was the gist of it. I did try to get across it wasn't a bother and they were having fun but I didn't really feel like I was getting anywhere.

Through my work, I actually know Officer Plod. He has been to my office with regard to tenants a number of times. I know he didn't recognize me though. I tend to look a little different when I leave my desk and office and don my Yankees hat and jeans and start hanging out in the local sandbox! And I thought that perhaps it was best not to bring up the fact that we know each other from work. A police officer must know most of the city from work and likely doesn't want to be reminded of it every time they step out of the house.

Tonight, the Plod family returned to the park. My kids ran to the gate to greet their son with cheerful welcomes. (because I have a good memory I had seen them coming and refreshed their memories of the little boy's name) In a stroke of pure luck we had packed snacks for the park tonight. We don't normally as we eat supper before we walk up. But tonight we had brought a feast--Wonderpets gushers (ick!!!) potato sticks in a can and bottles of water. My kids are instinctively generous with food. They immediately wanted to offer it to Little Plod. We asked if he could have some and the answer was yes. They had brought food too, and soon their grapes and honey grahams were mingled with our treats and all the kids were noshing happily. And Little Plod was allowed to play with us.

I was so glad for the kids. For mine, because one of the reasons I bring them to the park is so that they will continue to be friendly, outgoing and able to interact with lots of different people from lots of different walks of life. And mostly, for this little guy who really wanted to have some playmates. It must be really hard to be a police officer and worry about the ramifications of your child's playmates, and what will happen if your kid snatches a toy from some other kid. But at least today, it seemed like we got across that we are just there at the park to have fun. And we did.